(505 ILCS 17/5)

Sec. 5. Definitions. As used in this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Capital investment" means a purchase or lease of any of the following:

(1) A structure used for producing or storing a commodity required to be provided by the producer under the terms of the production contract if the structure has a useful life in excess of 3 years. This includes, but is not limited to, swine farrowing buildings, grain storage facilities, and manure storage structures.

(2) Machinery or equipment used for producing a commodity required to be provided by the producer under the terms of the production contract if the machinery has a useful life in excess of 3 years. This includes, but is not limited to, trucks, tractors, combines, wagons, augers, and planters.

"Commodity" means livestock, raw milk, fruits, vegetables, or a crop.

"Contract input" means a commodity or an organic or synthetic substance or compound that is used to produce a commodity, including but not limited to, livestock, plants, agricultural seeds, semen or eggs for breeding livestock, fertilizer, pesticides, or petroleum products.

"Contractor" means a person who offers, provides, or enters into a production contract with a producer for the production of commodities in this State by the producer.

"Crop" means a plant used for food, animal feed, fiber, oil, pharmaceuticals, nutriceuticals, industrial uses, or seed, including but not limited to, alfalfa, barley, buckwheat, canola, corn, flax, forage, fruits, millet, oats, popcorn, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers, tobacco, vegetables, wheat, and grasses used for forage or silage.

"Livestock" includes, but is not limited to, beef cattle, dairy cattle, poultry, sheep, or swine.

"Person" means an individual or entity, including but not limited to, a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, a cooperative, an association, a limited liability company, an estate, or a trust.

"Produce" means to do any of the following:

(1) Provide feed or services relating to the care and feeding of livestock. If the livestock is dairy cattle, then "produce" includes milking the dairy cattle and storing raw milk.

(2) Provide for planting, raising, harvesting, identity preserving, or storing a crop.

"Produce" includes preparing the soil for planting and also for nurturing the crop by the application of fertilizers or soil conditioners, including those substances regulated under the Illinois Fertilizer Act of 1961, or pesticides as defined in the Illinois Pesticide Act.

"Producer" means a person who has been offered or who has entered into a contract to produce a commodity. "Producer" does not include a fertilizer or pesticide applicator, a feed supplier, or a veterinarian, when acting in that capacity.

"Production contract" means: (1) Any written document offered to or executed by a producer, under the provisions of which (i) the producer would sell to a contractor, or the contractor's designee, an identified commodity or commodities and (ii) the contractor has, or exercises some control or direction over, the production process; or (2) any written agreement offered to or executed by a producer under the provisions of which the producer would produce, care for, or raise a commodity or commodities not owned by the producer, using land, equipment, or facilities owned or leased by the producer, in exchange for payment. For purposes of this definition, control or direction over the production process includes (i) the contractor's designation of special commodity characteristics, such as those present in value-enhanced grains, or specific genetics in livestock or (ii) the contractor's designation of a production input, such as a seed variety, to be used by the producer to fulfill the production contract.

(Source: P.A. 93-522, eff. 1-1-05.)