§ 404.1056 Explanation of agricultural labor. ( a ) *What is agricultural labor.* ( 1 ) If you work on a farm as an employee of any person, you are doing agricultural labor if your work has to do with— ( i ) Cultivating the soil;
( ii ) Raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training or managing livestock, bees, poultry, fur-bearing animals or wildlife; or
( iii ) Raising or harvesting any other agricultural or horticultural commodity.
( 2 ) If you work on a farm as an employee of any person in connection with the production or harvesting of maple sap, the raising or harvesting of mushrooms, or the hatching of poultry, you are doing agricultural labor. If you work in the processing of maple sap into maple syrup or maple sugar you are not doing agricultural labor even though you work on a farm. Work in a mushroom cave or poultry hatchery is agricultural labor only if the cave or hatchery is operated as part of a farm.
( 3 ) If you work as an employee of the owner, tenant, or other operator of a farm, you are doing agricultural labor if most of your work is done on a farm and is involved with— ( i ) The operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of the farm or its tools or equipment (this may include work by carpenters, painters, mechanics, farm supervisors, irrigation engineers, bookkeepers, and other skilled or semiskilled workers); or
( ii ) Salvaging timber or clearing the land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane.
( 4 ) You are doing agricultural labor no matter for whom or where you work, if your work involves— ( i ) Cotton ginning;
( ii ) Operating or maintaining ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways, if they are used only for supplying and storing water for farm purposes and are not owned or operated for profit; or
( iii ) Producing or harvesting crude gum (oleoresin) from living trees or processing the crude gum into gum spirits of turpentine and gum resin (if the processing is done by the original producer).
( 5 ) Your work as an employee in the handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage, to a market or to a carrier for transportation to market, of any agricultural or horticultural commodity is agricultural labor if— ( i ) You work for a farm operator or a group of farm operators (other than a cooperative organization);
( ii ) Your work involves the commodity in its raw or unmanufactured state; and
( iii ) The operator produced most of the commodity you work with during the period for which you are paid, or if you work for a group of operators, all of the commodity you work with during the pay period is produced by that group.
( 6 ) If you do nonbusiness work, it is agricultural labor if you do the work on a farm operated for a profit. A farm is not operated for profit if the employer primarily uses it as a residence or for personal or family recreation or pleasure. (See § 404.1058(a) for an explanation of nonbusiness work.)
( 7 ) The term *farm operator* means an owner, tenant, or other person, in possession of and operating a farm.
( 8 ) Work is not *agricultural labor* if it is done in the employ of a cooperative organization, which includes corporations, joint-stock companies, and associations treated as corporations under the Code. Any unincorporated group of operators is considered to be a cooperative organization if more than 20 operators are in the group at any time during the calendar year in which the work is done.
( 9 ) Processing work which changes the commodity from its raw or natural state is not agricultural labor. An example of this is the extraction of juices from fruits or vegetables. However, work in the cutting and drying of fruits or vegetables does not change the commodity from its raw or natural state and can be agricultural labor.
( 10 ) The term *commodity* means a single agricultural or horticultural product. For example, all apples are a commodity, while apples and oranges are two commodities.
( 11 ) Work connected with the commercial canning or freezing of a commodity is not agricultural labor nor is work done after the delivery of the commodity to a terminal market for distribution for consumption.
( b ) *What is a farm.* For purposes of social security coverage, *farm* includes a stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal, or truck farm, plantation, ranch, nursery, range or orchard. A farm also includes a greenhouse or other similar structure used mostly for raising agricultural or horticultural products. A greenhouse or other similar structure used mostly for other purposes such as display, storage, making wreaths and bouquets is not a farm.
[45 FR 20075, Mar. 27, 1980. Redesignated at 55 FR 7310, Mar. 1, 1990, as amended at 61 FR 38367, July 24, 1996; 70 FR 41955, July 21, 2005]