"Farm products" means crops or livestock or supplies used or produced in farming operations or products of crops or livestock in their unmanufactured states (such as ginned cotton, wool clip, maple syrup, honey, milk, and eggs) while in the possession of a defendant engaged in raising, fattening, grazing, or other farming operations. If tangible personal property is a farm product, it is not inventory.
§ 511.040.Farm Products
Title 7. Other Provisional Remedies In Civil Actions · Chapter 2. Claim and Delivery of Personal Property · Article 1. Words and Phrases Defined · Enacted 1973 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 511.040 defines farm products as crops, livestock, and related unmanufactured supplies or products a defendant possesses while engaged in farming operations, and clarifies that tangible property meeting this definition can never also count as inventory.
Full Text of § 511.040
Plain-English Summary
This definition matters because farm products get different treatment than ordinary business inventory elsewhere in the chapter. The term covers crops, livestock, and the supplies used to produce them, along with products of crops or livestock still in their unmanufactured state — the statute gives ginned cotton, wool clip, maple syrup, honey, milk, and eggs as examples. The property has to be in the possession of a defendant engaged in raising, fattening, grazing, or other farming operations.
The last sentence resolves any overlap with § 511.050's definition of inventory: if tangible personal property qualifies as a farm product, it is not inventory, full stop. That matters directly under § 513.020, which lets a temporary restraining order restrict a defendant's disposition of property generally but carves out an exception letting a defendant keep transferring farm products or inventory in the ordinary course of business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a farm product under this chapter?
Crops, livestock, and supplies used or produced in farming operations, plus unmanufactured products of crops or livestock such as ginned cotton, wool clip, maple syrup, honey, milk, and eggs, while in the possession of a defendant engaged in farming operations.
Can the same property be both a farm product and inventory?
No. Section 511.040 specifies that tangible personal property meeting the farm products definition is not inventory.
Why does the farm products versus inventory distinction matter?
Section 513.020 lets a defendant keep transferring farm products or inventory in the ordinary course of business even under a temporary restraining order, so the classification affects what a defendant can still do with the property while the case is pending.
Amendment History
Added by Stats. 1973, Ch. 526.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
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