Filming the days of their lives

COLLEGE GROVE, Tenn. — Nearly five years after the Hatcher family’s reality TV show, “The Hatcher Family Dairy,” first hit the National Geographic platform and Disney+, they are still receiving fan mail and emails from across the world.

“If we could influence one young person to be interested in farming … or veterinary (work), that’s a win to us,” Charles Hatcher said. “We feel like we did that with the handwritten letters and responses we’ve gotten from families saying, ‘Hey, my 7-year-old daughter wants to be a veterinarian now,’ or ‘My 10-year-old son wants to be a farmer now,’ which is fantastic, because we need more of them.”

Hatcher and his wife, Mary Morgan, sister, Jennifer, and parents, Charlie and Sharon, milk 90-100 pasture-based Jerseys, Holsteins and crossbreds and a handful of Brown Swiss cows with robotic milking units on 200 acres near College Grove. The family processes their own milk, bottling 5,500 gallons a week. They sell it at their farm store and to over 100 retail locations.

Jennifer is a veterinarian and operates the mixed-animal veterinary practice that Charlie started. In addition, the family also has another farm five miles away on 200 acres with an event barn. Both of their farms have Airbnb lodgings. The Hatchers have around 1,000 people tour their farm yearly, and thousands more who visit their on-farm store.

The family’s TV show, which focused on the daily life of their family across their various businesses, was filmed for 10 weeks in 2020.

“There’s a story behind every farm and every farming family, and the passion and work and the dedication that goes into it,” Hatcher said. “It’s not an 8-to-5 gig; it’s a way of life. And we really wanted to shine a spotlight on that.”

The family was connected with the producer, Chris Thomas, who is the son of one of Charlie’s colleagues from his 21 years working for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Recently, he was the Tennessee commissioner of agriculture from 2019 until his retirement in 2025.

After Thomas stopped at the Hatchers’ farm while home visiting, he reached out about the possibility of doing a TV show.

“We thought it was a scam,” Hatcher said. “We declined him about three or four times.”

The producer was persistent, and eventually the family agreed to have him and his team from Leepson Bounds Entertainment production company come to the farm. The crew spent a few days in 2019 filming a highlight reel to pitch the possible show to networks.

“We’re still thinking … there’s no way that this is going to happen,” Hatcher said.

National Geographic took an interest, and the family had to make the decision of whether they were going to move forward. They decided they would film the show on two conditions: first, that the show promoted agriculture, dairy farming and veterinary work; and second, that they had control over what was filmed.

“We basically said, ‘Y’all are just going to have to hit record and just follow us,’” Hatcher said.

The show was initially set to be filmed in March 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic shifted it back to August 2020. After filming was complete, editing the footage took 6-7 months.

Because the farm already did agritourism, filming did not cause anxiety Hatcher said.

“(The film crew) said, … ‘We’re not going to focus on something that might be controversial, we’re going to focus on what good comes out of … what you’re doing,’” Hatcher said. “We knew there was going to be some negative social media comments and posts and what-not, but … when you put yourself out there to the world, that’s going to happen.”

Jennifer’s vet clients who were willing to participate were filmed as well.

Hatcher said the relationships he made with the crew during 10-12 hours of filming each day are some of his favorite memories. He also enjoyed connecting with his family through the process.

“Off the cuff stuff and just that camaraderie and having fun and laughing and crying during the interviews … that’s stuff that stood out to me,” Hatcher said.

During the filming, Disney bought National Geographic, which pushed their show to the Disney+ platform, which, as of June 2025, had 128 million subscribers who could potentially watch it.

“It’s crazy, … seeing yourself and hearing yourself on national television,” Hatcher said. “Seeing your family, it’s like, ‘Wow, do we sound that redneck?’”

The family’s dairy farm has been in existence since 1819. In 2007, with a poor milk price, the family decided to switch to processing their own milk.

“You have to take a leap of faith,” Hatcher said. “You don’t know if it’s going to sell. You don’t know if you’re going to be successful. But we (felt) like we needed to do that in order to really survive as a small, family dairy.”

In 2024, the family added robotic milking units.

The family farm, about 30 minutes south of Nashville, is in Williamson County, the wealthiest county in Tennessee. Hatcher said their area has higher-end coffee shops, restaurants and markets that focus on local food.

“There’s no secret: It’s just location for us,” Hatcher said. “I can thank my three great grandfathers ago for settling right here.”

As they look to the future, the Hatcher family hopes to increase the amount of milk sold directly at their farm store, Hatcher said, as well as do more farm tours. On the media side, if the possibility of ever doing a second season of their show arises, they are up for that as well.

“We feel like we really connected with people in a positive way, and shed a lot of … good light on veterinarian (work) and dairy farming,” Hatcher said.