Talk to me about your barn's staff

[McGurk]

I think the real issue is not whether a boarding barn is agricultural, but whether it’s annual sales total $500,000 or more or is engaged in interstate commerce. The rules regarding payment of overtime and who is qualified as an exempt or non-exempt employee are part of the FLSA, Fair Labor Standards Act, and it only applies to employers with annual sales totaling $500,000 or more or engaged in interstate commerce.**

Raising the income threshold for the automatic determination of non-exempt (as mentioned in the posted article) doesn’t change which employers are subject to the FLSA.

[DownYonder]

Regarding “agricultural class,” a friend was able to qualify for an ag exemption on her training/boarding operation in a bustling suburb of a major metropolitan area, as long as the place was growing/producing crops, livestock, poultry, etc. For a short time, she bred a foal every 1-2 years and her husband raised poultry of various types, then she quit breeding her own mares and coyotes cleaned out the poultry, so she bought and stood a stallion. That also enabled her to meet the ag requirements even though she was no longer putting foals on the ground at the farm.

Adding that I think she was meeting state or local statutes - not sure about federal regulations.

[sami-joe]

Right. Thank you.

[quietann]

Yes, I know a BO in my area in a similar situation. They run a boarding and training facility, which does not qualify for a state ag exemption because no breeding is going on. To get the exemption, more than half the land is in hay, rather than paddocks, so the horses get just 3 to 4 hours of turnout per day. (To be fair, part of the land that is hayed can flood, so it wouldn’t make good paddocks anyway.)

[kirbydog]

I have a friend that bought a small place in one of those planned equestrian subdivisions, who couldn’t qualify for Ag exempt, until he started keeping bees, and selling the honey and beeswax. He actually really enjoys it, and now that he has a product to sell, he gets the tax exemption on the little farm

[CoconutEventer25]

I have worked at many barns, and I found a great balance at one of the barns. I took care (mucking, feeding, turn in/out, dragging the ring, general first aid etc) of 15 horses by myself. Working from 7:30-12, 1-3pm. 5 days a week. It was flexible enough that I could ride at lunch. I only did night check if the girl was out sick. For NC it was the same girl during the week, and someone else on weekends. She mucked, and hayed/watered. I was paid hourly but it was basically salary because I worked the same hours every day ($18 an hour). There was different staff on weekends, which I didn’t love as it always felt like a catch up, but I think if it had been more experienced people and not two young girls I wouldn’t have felt that way.

Felt to me like the perfect balance. I didn’t feel burnt out, or exhausted at the end of every day.

[Nancy2]

I used to bred and raise Paint horses. We had 11 broodmares and they were only stalled from a month before foaling until a month after the foals were weaned. It was just two of us (partner and I) doing chores before heading off to our real jobs.

I now work at a small barn that has 6 inside horses and 4 outside horses. I work in exchange for my apartment at $20 an hour. It takes me two hours in the morning to feed, blanket and turnout as well as clean stalls and dump manure.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

This “agricultural exemption” makes me better understand why some barns breed horses that never seem to sell or keep a few chickens or geese and “sell” the eggs.

[McGurk]

In my locality, (it differs dramatically from state to state and even county to county) and ag use exemption reduces your property tax on your open land (your house site is separate and still at market value.) It’s a tool that helps preserve open spaces and keeps ag use from being squeezed out.

So selling poultry, eggs, fruits and vegetables qualifies our property for the ag use exemption. You have to show 5 years of continuous operation before you qualify, we got grandfathered in because DH owned another piece of agricultural property.

The other benefit is that we file Schedule F with our tax return, with means we can write off certain expenses that are directly related to the ag use, and when we take a loss, we can write that off as well.

My understanding is that you have to be careful about hobby use vs. ag use and actually showing income; so I am very careful to separate out expenses that are purely for the horses/hobby use from ones that are from the parts of the farm that actually produce income. I am probably more cautious than some; but I think claiming ag use for your personal horses with no income being produced is sketchy.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

The 5 years continuous use and showing income makes a great deal of sense–I can see how that’s designed to prevent people who have small scale hobby farms or just personal livestock pets (including horses) from trying to take advantage.

[beowulf]

Don’t forget in most states those agricultural exemptions have to have a specific amount of continuous acreage in chapter too. It’s five acres minimum in MA.

You have to prove income every year in excess of the state minimum ($500/yr here, plus a certain amount each acre over five).

A good way to meet that is to sell goats or chickens. Selling $500/yr of eggs would be difficult for the average person. Selling honey works too but I understand that is quite labor intensive.

[Mallard]

As already mentioned , the climate matters. Everything is harder and takes long in cold & snowy winters.
Here in Eastern Ontario we can leave hoses outside from April to late October. The winter means bringing them all inside to a heated area. Troughs freeze which means heaters need to be installed and checked daily. Any manure left in wheelbarrows will freeze in them if left out. Pushing a full wheelbarrow through snow is hard work.

[phoenixrises]

When I was looking at buying an eventing facility in MA I also looked at having a Christmas tree farm. It wasn’t too labor intensive and was congruent with having an eventing facility. Didn’t end up doing that but it was certainly a way to get the farming money or tax breaks without having to raise another type of animal. Obviously, you’d have to live in a place where growing christmas trees was viable.

[lenapesadie]

Here folks raise palm trees for similar reasons!

[sami-joe]

@Mallard

Pushing a full wheelbarrow through snow is hard work.

Aww, you brought back fond memories of my working student days in Maine. Balancing the one-wheel barrows on the single plank that led up to the top of the giant poo pile took amazing core power.

Luckily, by the time I was an adult, I had a rider friend who had helped train/exercise racing TBs in Massachusetts in her youth. She had winter horse care down to a science and taught me to use a hunter’s sled. My barn was uphill from my manure heap, so I would fill the sled, toss some extra snow on top to protect my ski pants or quilted coveralls, hop in and slide down to the pile. I could even get my then-tween son to help if I said he could fake-snowboard by standing on the sled.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

@sami-joe

Aww, you brought back fond memories of my working student days in Maine. Balancing the one-wheel barrows on the single plank that led up to the top of the giant poo pile took amazing core power.

Why do so many barns do this? I still recall balancing on paths of rotting wood across mud up the giant poo pile up the plank thinking, “there’s got to be a better way,” or that the person who designed the system clearly had never used it. Mercifully, I was helping out at a barn during the summer so I never got to experience what it was like when the boards were slick with ice.

[phoenixrises]

ahhh the memories of losing my footing on a slippery board and eating it face first into the poo pile.