Finally, there were some items left on the table when the legislature adjourned the 2011 session. One of those items was a HB 652, a transportation bill that includes provisions that would benefit farmers by providing additional exemptions when bringing agricultural products to market. Those provisions include:
• Expanding the farm trailer registration exemption to include trailers also used to haul livestock, live poultry, animal waste, herbicides, fungicides and seeds.

• Additional farm weight exemptions including meats, live poultry, or agricultural crop products transported from a farm to a processing plant or market; grove, and other forest products, including chips and bark, to a processing point; and water, fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides, seeds, fuel, and animal waste transported to or from a farm by a farm vehicle.
• Creation of a new weight exemption for 2-axle farm vehicles that do not exceed a maximum gross weight of 37,000 pounds, a maximum single axle weight of no more than 27,000 pounds, with a length of at least 14 feet between the center of axle one and the center of axle two of the vehicle.

The bill will be eligible for consideration when lawmakers return for the "short session" in May, 2012.