Farm Use Tag in NC: Eligible Vehicles, Forms, and 150-Mile Radius

A farm use tag in NC, formally called a farmer plate, is a reduced-rate vehicle registration under N.C. General Statutes 20-88 for trucks and truck-tractors used to haul a farmer’s own products or supplies. The minimum annual fee is $38.50, roughly half the general commercial rate. To qualify, you must actively raise or grow farm products on at least 10 acres of North Carolina land and use the vehicle primarily for your own farming operation.

Who Qualifies

The statute defines “farmer” narrowly. You have to be actively raising and growing farm products on a North Carolina farm of at least 10 acres. Owning land you don’t work doesn’t count. Leasing your acreage out and collecting rent doesn’t either. The law looks at what you actually do on that land.¹

There’s a second restriction that trips people up: you cannot be in the business of buying products for resale. Purchase crops or livestock from other farms and resell them, and you’re a dealer under this statute, not a farmer. The plate is off the table. The law is aimed at producers, not middlemen.¹

What Counts as a Farm Product

The definition is broad. It covers food crops, livestock, poultry, dairy products, flower bulbs, nursery stock, and other agricultural goods intended for food. It also reaches beyond food to cotton, tobacco, logs, bark, pulpwood, and other forest products, provided you grew, produced, or processed them on your own farm.¹

For timber operators, that inclusion matters. Harvest trees on your own land and haul them yourself, and the farmer plate applies. Buy standing timber off someone else’s property and haul it out, and you’re buying for resale, which disqualifies you.

Which Vehicles Qualify

Farmer plates go on trucks and truck-tractors only. The statute doesn’t authorize them for trailers, semi-trailers, or passenger vehicles. The vehicle has to be operated for the primary purpose of carrying your own farm products or farm supplies such as seed, fertilizer, and equipment parts.¹

There’s no minimum weight. The fee schedule starts below 4,000 pounds and scales up, so a lighter-duty farm truck can carry a farmer plate. The weight you declare on your application sets both your registration fee and your legal load limit, so list the heaviest gross weight you expect to haul, including the truck’s own weight. Getting stopped over your registered weight can bring fines.

Forms You’ll Need

Two forms carry the application:

The MVR-1 Title Application establishes vehicle ownership and records the basics: VIN, weight, body type.²
The MVR-9 Farmer Affidavit certifies you qualify for the farmer rate. It asks whether you meet the 10-acre requirement, whether the vehicle will be used primarily to haul your own farm products and supplies, and whether you understand the plate can be revoked if the vehicle is used for anything else. Every question has to be answered “yes” or you don’t qualify.³

One common mix-up: Form MVR-613 is not the farmer affidavit. MVR-613 is a Highway Use Tax Exemption Certification used in unrelated titling situations, such as transfers between certain government entities or qualifying nonprofits.⁴

You can file in person at any NCDMV license plate agency, where staff can review your paperwork on the spot, or mail your completed forms and payment to the NCDMV headquarters in Raleigh. Bring your title or existing registration, a valid ID, and proof of insurance. Mail takes longer, so plan around your current registration’s expiration.

Registration Fees

Farmer-rate fees are calculated per hundred pounds of gross vehicle weight, on the following schedule:¹

Up to 4,000 lbs: $0.38 per hundred pounds
4,001 to 9,000 lbs: $0.52 per hundred pounds
9,001 to 13,000 lbs: $0.65 per hundred pounds
13,001 to 17,000 lbs: $1.13 per hundred pounds
Over 17,000 lbs: $1.25 per hundred pounds

The minimum annual fee is $38.50 at the farmer rate, versus $46.25 at the general rate. A farm truck registered at 15,000 pounds gross weight runs about $169.50 a year at the farmer rate, compared to roughly $303.00 at the general rate.¹

If you only need the truck seasonally, the statute lets you buy a farmer plate for any three-month period at one-quarter of the annual fee. Useful for Christmas tree farms, seasonal produce growers, and anyone whose hauling is concentrated in part of the year.¹

On top of the plate fee, your county will assess vehicle property tax based on the vehicle’s assessed value. Payment for both the registration fee and the applicable property tax has to accompany your application.

Rules for Using a Farm-Plated Vehicle

The single hardest line in the statute: farmer plates cannot be used on a vehicle that hauls for hire. If someone pays you to move their goods, that truck needs general commercial registration.¹

The vehicle’s primary use has to be hauling your own farm products or supplies. The MVR-9 affidavit spells out the consequence: if the vehicle is used “for any purpose other than those set out” in the affidavit, the Division of Motor Vehicles can summarily remove the plate and require you to buy a new registration at the correct classification. No hearing, no warning.³

The statute uses “primary purpose” language rather than banning every incidental personal trip. A run to the feed store or a drive into town for parts is squarely within the plate’s purpose. Routinely using a farm-plated truck as your daily commuter or weekend hauler, though, undermines the claim that farming is its primary use.

The DMV can also recall, transfer, exchange, or cancel the plate when the vehicle is sold or transferred.¹ If you sell the truck, notify the DMV so the plate can be properly handled. And if your operation changes, such as dropping below 10 acres or shifting into buying and reselling, your eligibility disappears; switch to general registration before the DMV catches the discrepancy.

The 150-Mile Radius Question

A widely repeated claim says NC farm plates restrict you to a 150-mile radius from your farm. That restriction does not appear in GS 20-88. The 150-mile figure comes from federal CDL and hours-of-service exemptions, which sit alongside the state registration but are not part of it. The farmer plate itself has no geographic boundary in North Carolina law.

Where the number does have force: federal rules let states waive the Commercial Driver’s License requirement for farm vehicles controlled and operated by a farmer, used to transport farm products or supplies, not used for-hire, and driven within 150 miles of the farm. The federal “covered farm vehicle” designation exempts qualifying vehicles from many FMCSA safety regulations; if your truck weighs 26,001 pounds or less, that exemption applies anywhere in the country, and above that weight it applies within your state or within 150 air-miles of your farm across state lines.⁵ Hours-of-service rules are also relaxed within 150 air-miles of the source of the agricultural commodities.⁶

North Carolina-Specific Perks Worth Knowing

Under GS 20-381, North Carolina adds exemptions for farmers operating as intrastate private carriers. Moving agricultural products between fields on the same farm over local roads is exempt from federal hazardous-materials packaging and marking requirements. Hauling agricultural products to or from a farm anywhere within the state is exempt from certain hazmat placarding and documentation rules.⁷

North Carolina also defines its “planting and harvesting season” as January 1 through December 31, which makes the federal agricultural hours-of-service exemption available year-round inside the state. Many other states limit that exemption to specific months. Covered farm vehicles in intrastate commerce here are additionally exempt from the federal requirement to display a USDOT number and other identification markings.⁷

Separately from the plate, if you want a sales-tax exemption on farm purchases like equipment and supplies, you can apply for a qualifying farmer exemption certificate through the NC Department of Revenue using Form E-595QF. It requires gross farming income of at least $10,000 in the prior tax year, or an average of $10,000 over the prior three years. It isn’t required for the farmer plate, but it unlocks broader tax savings worth pursuing.⁸

1
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 20-88 – Property-Hauling Vehicles
2
North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles Title Application
3
North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. Farmer Affidavit MVR-9
4
North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. Highway Use Tax Exemption Certification MVR-613
5
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Farm, Ranch, and Agricultural Transportation Exemption Reference Guide
6
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. ELD Hours of Service and Agriculture Exemptions
7
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 20-381 – Specific Powers and Duties of State Highway Patrol Applicable to Motor Carriers; Agricultural Exemption
8
North Carolina Department of Revenue. Qualifying and Conditional Farmers