Ag exemption

Legal? Idk, but it works because everyone reads the regulation different.

Fertilizer can be exempt:

49 CFR § 395.1

(k) Agricultural operations. The provisions of this part shall not apply during planting and harvesting periods, as determined by each State, to drivers transporting

(1) Agricultural commodities from the source of the agricultural commodities to a location within a 150 air-mile radius from the source;

(2) Farm supplies for agricultural purposes from a wholesale or retail distribution point of the farm supplies to a farm or other location where the farm supplies are intended to be used within a 150 air-mile radius from the distribution point; or

(3) Farm supplies for agricultural purposes from a wholesale distribution point of the farm supplies to a retail distribution point of the farm supplies within a 150 air-mile radius from the wholesale distribution point.

49 CFR § 395.2 - Definitions

Farm supplies for agricultural purposes
Farm supplies for agricultural purposes means products directly related to the growing or harvesting of agricultural commodities during the planting and harvesting seasons within each State, as determined by the State, and livestock feed at any time of the year.

The planting and harvesting periods are determined by where the product was picked up, regardless if you cross state lines.

Pickup in WA deliver in Oregon, WA harvest periods are used.

Good Starting Point
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/hours-service/elds/agriculture-exemption-diagrams

I have a client I do paperwork for and he will tell you are wrong on the fertilzer being and exempt farm supply.

It gets the 150 mile free be for logging.

Try This:

"Agricultural commodity", as used in this subchapter, means wheat, cotton, flax, corn, dry beans, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, rice, peanuts, soybeans, sugar beets, sugar cane, tomatoes, grain sorghum, sunflowers, raisins, oranges, sweet corn, dry peas, freezing and canning peas, forage, apples, grapes, potatoes, timber and forests, nursery crops, citrus, and other fruits and vegetables, nuts, tame hay, native grass, hemp, aquacultural species (including, but not limited to, any species of finfish, mollusk, crustacean, or other aquatic invertebrate, amphibian, reptile, or aquatic plant propagated or reared in a controlled or selected environment), or any other agricultural commodity, excluding stored grain, determined by the Board, or any one or more of such commodities, as the context may indicate."

The part I always chuckle about is "An agricultural commodity is any other agricultural commodity" A first class example of politicle talk that makes no cents.

And then there is this;

"Guidance: No. The exception was created by Sec. 345(a)(1) of the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 [Public Law 104-50,109 Stat.568, at613], which provides in part that the hours of service regulations “shall not apply to drivers transporting agricultural commodities or farm supplies for agricultural purposes...”The terms “agricultural commodities or farm supplies for agricultural purposes” were not defined, but the context clarifies their meaning. Because the statute made the exception available only “during the planting and harvesting seasons” in each State, Congress obviously intended to restrict it to agriculture in the traditional (and etymological) sense, i.e., the cultivation of fields. “Agricultural commodities” therefore means products grown on and harvested from the land, and “farm supplies for agricultural purposes” means products directly related to the growing or harvesting of agricultural commodities."

Drivers transporting livestock or slaughtered animals, or the grain, corn, hay, etc., used to feed animals, may not use the “agricultural operations” exception.

So if you read where is states, "farm supplies for agricultural purposes" means products directly related to the GROWING or harvesting of Ag Commodities. I would think anything you spread on the ground would fall into that description.

Oh and then I find this:

1980-Pub. L. 96–365 extended definition of "agricultural commodity" to include tomatoes, grain sorghum, sunflowers, raisins, oranges, sweet corn, dry peas, freezing and canning peas, forage, apples, grapes, nursery crops, and aquacultural species as illustrated but not limited, excluded livestock and stored grain, substituted "sugar cane" for "sugarcane", and inserted reference to subsec. (i) of section 1508 of this title.

And I have no idea what set out means.

1944-Act Dec. 23, 1944, increased scope of definition of "agricultural commodity" from "wheat or cotton" to include all crops now set out.