Agricultural labor

(a) In general. (1) Services performed by an employee for the person employing him which constitute “agricultural labor” as defined in section 3306(k) are excepted from employment by reason of section 3306(c)(1). See § 31.3306(c)(1)-1. The term “agricultural labor” as defined in section 3306(k) includes services of the character described in paragraphs (b), (c), (d), and (e) of this section. In general, however, the term does not include services performed in connection with forestry, lumbering, or landscaping.

(2) The term “farm” as used in this subpart includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal, and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, orchards, and such greenhouses and other similar structures as are used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities. Greenhouses and other similar structures used primarily for other purposes (for example, display, storage, and fabrication of wreaths, corsages, and bouquets) do not constitute “farms”.

(c) Services described in section 3306(k)(2). (1) The following services performed by an employee in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of one or more farms constitute agricultural labor, if the major part of such services is performed on a farm:

(i) Services performed in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of any such farms or its tools or equipment; or

(ii) Services performed in salvaging timber, or clearing land of brush and other debris, left by a hurricane.

(2) The services described in paragraph (c)(1)(i) of this section may include, for example, services performed by carpenters, painters, mechanics, farm supervisors, irrigation engineers, bookkeepers, and other skilled or semiskilled workers, which contribute in any way to the conduct of the farm or farms, as such, operated by the person employing them, as distinguished from any other enterprise in which such person may be engaged.

(3) Since the services described in this paragraph must be performed in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of the farm, services performed by employees of a commercial painting concern, for example, which contracts with a farmer to renovate his farm properties, do not constitute agricultural labor.

(d) Services described in section 3306(k)(3). Services performed by an employee in the employ of any person in connection with any of the following operations constitute agricultural labor without regard to the place where such services are performed:

(1) The ginning of cotton;

(2) The hatching of poultry;

(3) The raising or harvesting of mushrooms;

(4) The operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways used exclusively for supplying or storing water for farming purposes;

(5) The production or harvesting of maple sap or the processing of maple sap into maple sirup or maple sugar (but not the subsequent blending or other processing of such sirup or sugar with other products); or

(6) The production or harvesting of crude gum (oleoresin) from a living tree or the processing of such crude gum into gum spirits of turpentine and gum rosin provided such processing is carried on by the original producer of such crude gum.

(e) Services described in section 3306(k)(4). (1)(i) Services performed by an employee in the employ of a farmer or a farmers' cooperative organization or group in the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, of any agricultural or horticultural commodity, other than fruits and vegetables (see paragraph (e)(2) of this section), produced by such farmer or farmer-members of such organization or group of farmers constitute agricultural labor, if such services are performed as an incident to ordinary farming operations.

(ii) Generally services are performed “as an incident to ordinary farming operations” within the meaning of this paragraph if they are services of the character ordinarily performed by the employees of a farmer or of a farmers' cooperative organization or group as a prerequisite to the marketing, in its unmanufactured state, of any agricultural or horticultural commodity produced by such farmer or by the members of such farmers' organization or group. Services performed by employees of such farmer or farmers' organization or group in the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, of commodities produced by persons other than such farmer or members of such farmers' organization or group are not performed “as an incident to ordinary farming operations”.

(2) Services performed by an employee in the employ of any person in the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, of fruits and vegetables, whether or not of a perishable nature, constitute agricultural labor, if such services are performed as an incident to the preparation of such fruits and vegetables for market. For example, if services in the sorting, grading, or storing of fruits, or in the cleaning of beans, are performed as an incident to their preparation for market, such services may constitute agricultural labor, whether performed in the employ of a farmer, a farmers' cooperative, or a commercial handler of such commodities.

(3) The services described in paragraphs (e)(1) and (2) of this section do not include services performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption. Moreover, since the services described in such subparagraphs must be rendered in the actual handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, of the commodity, such services do not, for example, include services performed as stenographers, bookkeepers, clerks, and other office employees, even though such services may be in connection with such activities. However, to the extent that the services of such individuals are performed in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm and are rendered in major part on a farm, they may be within the provisions of paragraph (c) of this section.