Kentucky Chapter 247: Agritourism, Farm Animal Liability, and Penalties

Kentucky’s Chapter 247 agriculture laws sit under the heading “Promotion of Agriculture and Related Activities,” and the chapter is narrower than its name suggests. It governs commodity check-off assessments, agritourism and farm animal liability shields, State Fair Board operations, amusement ride safety, farm bureaus, foreign ownership of farmland, and agricultural research through the university extension system. Pesticide licensing, water quality plans, livestock welfare, and farm labor rules live in other chapters. If you farm in Kentucky, Chapter 247 is one piece of your compliance picture, not the whole of it.¹

What Chapter 247 Actually Covers

The chapter is organized around promotion and protection of Kentucky agriculture rather than day-to-day production rules. Its main blocks are:¹

Foreign land ownership restrictions (KRS 247.018).
Experiment stations, extension work, seed stock and forage-crop breeding, and dairy cattle improvement through artificial insemination (KRS 247.020–247.088).
State Fair Board membership, powers, procurement, policing, gambling prohibitions, and revenue bonds (KRS 247.090–247.228).
Amusement rides and aerial recreational facilities: registration, permits, insurance, inspections, and incident investigations (KRS 247.232–247.238).
Farm bureaus and the state federation of county farm bureaus (KRS 247.240–247.370).
Farm animal activity liability with mandatory warning notices (KRS 247.401–247.4029).
Agritourism liability protections and advisory council (KRS 247.800–247.810).
Commodity assessment programs for milk, dairy, small grains, soybeans, corn, cotton, beef cattle, sheep, burley tobacco, pork, and eggs.
Farm name registration, county farm safety programs, gasohol production, the Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corporation, and surplus commodity distribution to food banks.

The sections below walk through the provisions a Kentucky operator is most likely to run into, then close with the penalty framework and the boundaries you should know before assuming Chapter 247 answers a question.

Foreign Ownership of Kentucky Farmland

KRS 247.018 restricts nonresident aliens, foreign businesses, foreign government agents, and trustees or fiduciaries acting for proscribed countries from purchasing, leasing, or acquiring Kentucky agricultural land. Transactions that fall within the statute are subject to conditions and reporting requirements, and violations can trigger enforcement.¹

The provision is aimed at proscribed-country ties rather than at every foreign buyer, so treatment can differ depending on the nationality and structure of the purchaser. If any part of a farmland transaction involves a foreign buyer or foreign-controlled entity, get an agricultural attorney involved before closing.

Commodity Assessment (Check-Off) Programs

A large portion of Chapter 247 sets up mandatory assessments on Kentucky commodity producers. These “check-off” programs fund research, marketing, and industry promotion, and the Commissioner of Agriculture supervises the referendum process, sets voting details, and publishes results for each one.²

Covered commodities include milk, dairy products, small grains, soybeans, corn, cotton, beef cattle, sheep and lamb, burley tobacco, pork, and eggs. Each has its own set of statutes fixing the assessment rate, collection method, and permissible uses of the funds. In most cases, the deduction happens at the point of sale or through the first purchaser, so producers see it on their settlement rather than paying it directly.

Misusing assessment proceeds is one of the specific offenses the chapter’s penalty section reaches. KRS 247.990 addresses diversion of farm bureau funds and violations tied to the burley tobacco assessment statutes, and each day of noncompliance can count as a separate violation.¹

Agritourism Liability Protections

KRS 247.800 through 247.810 shield agritourism professionals from certain lawsuits when visitors are injured by risks inherent to the agricultural experience. Corn mazes, U-pick fruit, farm tours, pumpkin patches, and similar operations are the intended beneficiaries.¹

The protection is conditional. Operators must post specific warning notices telling visitors they assume the inherent risks of the activity. Skip the notice and the shield weakens. The statute also creates an advisory council to develop administrative regulations for the program.

The shield does not cover negligence. Failing to maintain equipment, hiding a known hazard, or acting recklessly falls outside the statute. Visitors accept inherent risks like uneven terrain or proximity to animals, not hazards created by the operator’s carelessness.

Farm Animal Activity Liability

KRS 247.401 through 247.4029 apply the same structure to farm animal activities. The statute opens with legislative findings acknowledging that working with farm animals carries inherent risks, and it limits legal exposure for operators, sponsors, and professionals involved in those activities.¹

Participants share responsibility for understanding those risks, but only if the operator posts the required warning signs or provides written notice that inherent risks exist and that Kentucky law limits the operator’s liability. As with agritourism, the protection breaks down when the operator acts negligently or intentionally causes harm.

State Fair Board and Fairgrounds Operations

KRS 247.090 through 247.228 establish the Kentucky State Fair Board as a body corporate with exclusive control over operations and events on fairgrounds property, including the state fair itself, the Kentucky Exposition Center, and any other property in its custody.¹

These statutes cover board membership and officer selection, employee hiring, procurement, policing powers on fairgrounds, speed limits and traffic control, gambling prohibitions, revenue bond authority, and grants to local county fairs. Vendors, exhibitors, and event organizers on state fair property operate under the Board’s administrative regulations, and violating those regulations carries penalties under KRS 247.145.

Experiment Stations and Extension Research

KRS 247.020 through 247.088 direct the University of Kentucky’s agricultural experiment stations to conduct research benefiting the state’s farming economy. Work includes substations at Princeton and Quicksand, tobacco disease control, dairy cattle improvement through artificial insemination, seed stock and forage-crop breeding, and groundwater resource assessment.²

KRS 247.070 requires the university to run a cooperative marketing bureau, and KRS 247.080 allows local boards of education to support extension work. For a producer dealing with crop disease, soil problems, or breed improvement, the extension system funded through these statutes is often the most useful free resource in the state.

Penalties Under Chapter 247

The chapter’s main penalty section, KRS 247.990, is narrower than many people assume. It addresses specific conduct such as diverting farm bureau funds to unauthorized purposes and violations of the burley tobacco assessment provisions in KRS 247.710 through 247.785. Each day of noncompliance can count as a separate violation.¹

Separate penalty provisions apply to amusement ride violations under KRS 247.236 and to violations of State Fair Board regulations under KRS 247.145. The boll weevil eradication statutes authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture to establish penalties by administrative regulation for violations of KRS 247.6040 through 247.6070, and moving an infested regulated article into the state carries its own penalty under KRS 247.6054.²

For boll weevil enforcement specifically, the Commissioner can inspect fields, declare quarantines, restrict movement of regulated articles, and require treatment or destruction of infested cotton.²

What Chapter 247 Does Not Cover

Several rules that farmers assume fall under Chapter 247 are actually located elsewhere in the Kentucky Revised Statutes. Reading only Chapter 247 leaves real gaps in a compliance review.

Pesticide licensing. Commercial pesticide application is governed by KRS Chapter 217B, which requires applicators to hold the proper license and certification from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Civil penalties under KRS 217B.990 can reach $1,000 per violation, with an additional $1,000 for each continuing day, and willful violations are misdemeanors punishable by a fine of $100 to $1,000, up to one year of imprisonment, or both.³

Agriculture water quality. Water quality plans for farming and forestry operations are required under the Agriculture Water Quality Act at KRS 224.71-100 through 224.71-140, not Chapter 247. An existing conservation plan, compliance plan, or forest stewardship management plan can serve as the water quality plan until the statewide plan’s requirements are incorporated.⁴

State Board of Agriculture.strong> The Board itself is created under KRS 246.120 and operates under Chapter 246. Chapter 247 assigns the Commissioner of Agriculture specific duties over check-off referendums, boll weevil enforcement, and other promotion programs, but the Board’s structural authority is not in this chapter.⁵

Federal labor, safety, and tax rules. FLSA overtime and minimum wage treatment for agricultural workers, OSHA field sanitation obligations for operations with 11 or more hand-labor employees on a given day, Schedule F reporting to the IRS, and prevented planting claims under federal crop insurance all sit outside Chapter 247 and apply regardless of state agricultural statutes. A total compliance picture for a Kentucky farm has to account for them separately.

Treat Chapter 247 as the promotion, protection, and fair-operations chapter it is. When a question involves chemicals, water, workers, taxes, or federal programs, the answer is almost always in another statute.

1
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes – Chapter 247
2
Justia Law. Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 247 – Promotion of Agriculture and Related Activities
3
Justia Law. Kentucky Revised Statutes 217B.990 – Penalties for Chapter
4
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 224.71-120 – Agriculture Water Quality Plans – Monitoring
5
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 246.120 – State Board of Agriculture