Farm equipment, parked on a farm, is illegal?
“It’s as crazy as it sounds,” says Danny Kitzman, “but it’s happening to me right now.”
In rural western Tennessee—Kitzman’s trailers, tillage implements, and track hoe sitting alongside a soybean field are a threat to code, claim officials in Madison County, a locale consistently ranked among the highest in the nation for per capita crime.
“Just when you think you’ve heard it all, you haven’t,” Kitzman adds. “We’ve got murders and robberies in serious numbers in this county, but I’m the one facing fines or seizure or who knows what, all because I parked my agriculture equipment on my own land. This could happen to you, too.”
Hell of an Irony
Soybean production, farm equipment auctions, land sales, and house construction, Danny Kitzman, 34, keeps a lot of irons in the fire. “I’m just a guy trying to make a living in agriculture and I’m willing to do anything and everything. I’m a small, small farmer, but I hope to farm fulltime somewhere down the road.”
“I love farm life. I do whatever it takes to make a buck and I don’t get in anyone’s business. Every time I save a dollar, it goes into equipment or land.”
As the first half of a historically wet 2025 rolled along, Kitzman—mirroring thousands of Mid-South producers in Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi—had major planting issues. On a particular 11-acre soybean field parallel to Highway 70, a stone’s throw from the boundary line between Madison County and Haywood County, Kitzman threw in the towel on a small portion of the acreage.
“Maybe it’ll end up getting planted this year; maybe not. I took a tiny bit of the field, put down some gravel, and parked some vehicles—equipment I use for or in all my agribusiness operations. I live and have my business headquarters in Crockett County, so this was a great overflow location for me. It’s a rural parking spot so far out that it’s almost not in Madison County.”
Surrounded by cultivated fields, a requisite Dollar General, a house just visible through a tree line six acres distant, a sawmill across the highway, and flanked by an approximately 200-acre solar farm, Kitzman placed an assortment of agriculture machinery atop his gravel strip, from dirt buckets to tillage equipment.
Beyond the equipment, his acreage contained no buildings; no signs; and no electricity.
On March 18, Kitzman’s mailbox clinked with a letter from Madison County officials referencing a code violation. Essentially, Kitzman was ordered to remove all agriculture machinery from the farmland.
“I got a call from the codes department and they said the presence of the equipment was violating their code and I was running a business. I said, ‘Farm equipment on a farm is breaking code? What the hell are yall talking about? I use this machinery in my farm income every year, one way or another.’”
“Long as I live, I’ll never forget their reply: ‘You don’t farm enough or make enough money for that amount of equipment, so you have to move it from the side of the highway.’”
“Kinda odd, when you consider what’s in eyesight of my soybean field,” Kitzman continues. “That 200-acre solar farm, which sure as hell isn’t farming and sticks out as an eyesore like nothing else—that meets all the county’s zoning requirements. I’d bet everything that if I had solar panels sitting on my farm instead of farm equipment, the county would be in full support and make certain I had full code approval. That’s what I call a hell of an irony.”
By the Code
Move the machinery or else. Or else what? Per a Madison County attorney: “Failure to comply may lead to my office taking legal action, seeking an injunction and a judgment against you for all costs related to enforcement of the Zoning Resolution, including possible civil penalties set forth under the law.”
(The Madison County Property Code Enforcement Department did not respond to Farm Journal interview requests.)
The threats stunned Kitzman. “What? There are farmers all around me with dozers and track hoes and cultivators, and I’ve never heard of the county dictating anything about equipment matching acreage. Bottom line, according to my countless calls with county officials: I don’t have a real agriculture business by the code.”
Kitzman dove into the code book. On May 19, he emailed Madison County officials a listing of code justification: To further support our status as an agribusiness, I am providing the relevant Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes that correspond to our primary activities:
Farming Operations: SIC 01: Agricultural Production — Crops; SIC 011: Cash Grains (e.g., Wheat - 0111, Corn - 0115, Soybeans - 0116); SIC 013: Field Crops, Except Cash Grains (e g., Cotton - 0131); SIC 02: Agricultural Production — Livestock (e.g., Beef Cattle - 0212, Dairy Farms - 0241)
Farm Equipment Auctions: SIC 3523: Farm Machinery and Equipment (including auction and sales of agricultural machinery)
Farm Real Estate Auctions: SIC 6531: Real Estate Agents and Managers (covering real estate sales and auction services for farm properties)
These SIC codes demonstrate that our business is fundamentally engaged in agricultural production, farm equipment sales, and farm real estate transactions, all of which are recognized components of the agribusiness sector.
On May 30, Kitzman received a certified letter from the county: Move it all within two days or face legal action.
Except Farm Equipment
As the legal clock rolls, Kitzman asks multiple questions.
“Is the county going to try and ruin me because I parked tractors in my soybean field? How did we get to a point where the county gets to decide how many pieces of equipment I can park? Does the county want my land? Is someone else pushing this?”
He offers a warning to landowners and agriculture producers: “Who’s to say you won’t be next with some code violation for putting seed equipment or a spray trailer or bin storage beside your turnrow?”
“This is nuts,” he concludes. “We’re talking about rural Tennessee. There’s nothing out here in any of these fields to begin with—except farm equipment.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
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How a Nazi-Fighting Oklahoman Rejected NFL Draft and Went Home to Farm
Sisters of Farm Fraud: How 4 Siblings Fleeced USDA for $10M
Tractor Terrorist: How a Forgotten Farmer Attacked Washington with Fertilizer Bombs
Farmer Unearths Lost Treasure, Solves WW2 Mystery
How The Deep State Tried, And Failed, To Crush An American Farmer
Organic Implosion: How Two Grifters Cooked $50M In Fake Fertilizer and Rocked Agriculture
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
