[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR780.130]

[Page 574-575]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 780_EXEMPTIONS APPLICABLE TO AGRICULTURE, PROCESSING OF AGRICULTURAL 
 
                 Subpart B_General Scope of Agriculture
 
Sec. 780.130  Performance ``by a farmer'' generally.

    Among other things, a practice must be performed by a farmer or on a 
farm in order to come within the secondary portion of the definition of 
``agriculture.'' No precise lines can be drawn which will serve to 
delimit the term ``farmer'' in all cases. Essentially, however, the term 
is an occupational title and the employer must be engaged in activities 
of a type and to the extent that the person ordinarily regarded as a 
``farmer'' is engaged in order to qualify for the title. If this test is 
met, it is immaterial for what purpose he engages in farming or whether 
farming is his sole occupation. Thus, an employer's status as a 
``farmer'' is not altered by the fact that his only purpose is to obtain 
products useful to him in a non-farming enterprise which he conducts. 
For example, an employer engaged in raising nursery stock is a 
``farmer'' for purposes of section 3(f) even though his purpose is to 
supply goods for a separate establishment where he engages in the retail 
distribution of nursery products. The term ``farmer'' as used in section 
3(f) is not confined to individual persons. Thus an association, a 
partnership, or a corporation which engages in actual farming operations

[[Page 575]]

may be a ``farmer'' (see Mitchell v. Budd, 350 U.S. 473). This is so 
even where it operates ``what might be called the agricultural analogue 
of the modern industrial assembly line'' (Maneja v. Waialua, 349 U.S. 
254).