Family celebrates farming legacy

Knight-Hawk Farm honored by WC Soil service

The Hawk family, who have owned the Knight-Hawk farm for more than 160 years, were recognized as Walton County’s Conservationists of the Year.  Photo credit: Stephen Milligan | The Walton Tribune

Britt Hawk isn’t just a farmer. He’s a living legacy.

Hawk, along with his wife, Amy, owns and operates the Knight-Hawk Farm, which consists of 230 acres along Hestertown Road and Social Circle Fairplay Road.

The farm, consisting of two tracts from either side of his family, has been in his family for more than 160 years.

“I take a lot of pride in farming the land my family has owned for so long,” Hawk said. “I want to keep up that legacy.”

So he’s proud to extend that legacy with the help of the Walton County Soil and Water Conservation District, which recently named him and his farm the county’s Conservationist of the Year.

“It’s an honor to receive this and be recognized,” Hawk said.

The family home place, which six generations have now lived in, was established in the late 1850s by Hawk’s great-greatgrandfather, George Anderson Knight. That original farm consisted of 497 acres, land granted to him for his service in the Civil War.

With Britt and Amy’s grandson, William, both farms have entered their seventh generation.

And for much of that time, the Walton County Soil and Water Conservation District has been there with them.

Hawk’s great-grandfather, John Calvin Knight, had a diversified farm where he worked 50 acres of cotton with mules, which he planted by the moon. The Soil Conservation service assisted him in constructing terraces to keep topsoil from washing away on his crop land.

Hawks’ grandfather, Carl Nunnally Knight, planted cotton on 50 acres of open land with tractors and planted pines on the 18-acre mule pasture to permanently stabilize the soil with the help of the local Conservation Service.

After Hawk’s grandfather retired from farming, his father Walter Hawk worked the land rotating crops, planting cotton, soybeans, wheat and grain sorghum. He participated with the conservation services in the set-aside crop land program to improve the health of the soil and to help prevent erosion on the property.

Hawk has continued that legacy of responsible farming.

He planted 50 acres of Bermuda grass to stabilize the land, and has maintained a grove of loblolly pines over 43 acres. He recently reforested that area after harvesting 18 acres of trees, working with the Georgia Forestry Commission on the project, and has also built a docking station for wood gathering, established roads and trails, and established berms in the perimeter road to keep it from washing.

He has future plans to install cross fencing and create a high-use area for livestock feeding and watering.

For all this and more, Hawk was honored this month at the Conservation District’s annual meeting.

“The Lord has blessed my family,” Hawk said.