Colorado § 8-70-109 - Agricultural labor.

§ 8-70-109. Agricultural labor.

(1) "Agricultural labor" means any remunerated service performed:

(a) On a farm in the employ of any person, in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and fur-bearing animals and wildlife;

(b) In the employ of the owner, tenant, or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by an act of nature, if the major part of the service is performed on a farm;

(c) In connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in section 15 (g) of the "Agricultural Marketing Act", as amended (46 Stat. 1550, sec. 3; 12 U.S.C. sec. 1141j), or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes;

(d) In the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity, but only if such operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which the service is performed; except that the provisions of this paragraph (d) are not applicable with respect to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption;

(e) In the employ of a group of operators of farms (or a cooperative organization of which such operators are members) in the performance of service described in paragraph (d) of this subsection (1), but only if such operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which the service is performed; except that the provisions of this paragraph (e) are not applicable with respect to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution for consumption; or

(f) On a farm operated for profit if the service is not in the course of the employer's trade.

(2) As used in this section, the term "farm" includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animal, and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses, or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities and orchards.

Source: L. 79: Entire section added, p. 357, § 1, effective May 18. L. 90: Entire section R&RE, p. 588, § 2, effective April 3.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. Since the substantive provisions of this section are identical to former § 8-70-103 (10)(f.3), relevant cases construing that provision have been included under this section.

Activities not constituting agriculture within meaning of act. The growing of mushrooms in confined areas under cover does not come within the classification of "agriculture" so as to exempt persons engaged in such business and their employees form the operation of the provisions of this and following section, concerning unemployment compensation. Great W. Mushroom Co. v. Indus. Comm'n, 103 Colo. 39, 82 P.2d 751 (1938); Park Floral Co. v. Indus. Comm'n, 104 Colo. 350, 91 P.2d 492 (1939).

The business of harvesting living native trees on private ranchland or on public land was not done "on a farm". McFarland v. Indus. Comm'n, 723 P.2d 154 (Colo. App. 1986).

The word "exclusively" pertaining to supplying and storing water for farming purposes means without any exception or solely, and therefore, reservoir company which allowed for recreational use of water did not meet requirements for exemption as agricultural labor. Cache La Poudre Reservoir Co., v. Indus. Claim Appeals Office, 757 P.2d 173 (Colo. App. 1988).

Phrase "used exclusively", for purposes of agricultural labor exemption, applies to all uses of the water and not just consumptive uses. Cache La Poudre Reservoir Co., v. Indus. Claim Appeals Office, 757 P.2d 173 (Colo. App. 1988).

Applied in Nazzaro v. Indus. Comm'n, 671 P.2d 983 (Colo. App. 1983).