Cherokee County, SC Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

The protection for farming in the Cherokee County Code of Ordinances sits inside Article IV, Noise Regulations, in Chapter 15. Section 15-61 declares noise that substantially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of persons of ordinary sensibilities to be unlawful and a nuisance in unincorporated Cherokee County, South Carolina. Section 15-65 then lists noises that are exempt from the prohibitions of the article, even when a nuisance is caused, and item (8) is the farm exemption: the article does not apply to any noise emanating from an agricultural operation.

The definition is broad on what counts as farming. "Agricultural operation" means the production or raising for sale or personal use of crops or animals or fowl. The words "personal use" bring in a household garden or a few backyard chickens, not only commercial farms, and the words "animals or fowl" bring in livestock and poultry.

Two neighboring items back it up. Item (5) exempts the operation of agricultural vehicles, tractors and other vehicles exempted from registration and licensing requirements under state law, and motor vehicles transporting poultry or livestock. Item (9) exempts noise from any animal or gun used in the sport of hunting, target practice or clay pigeons.

The exemption matters most against § 15-64(1), which otherwise makes it a nuisance to keep any animal, including a bird, causing a frequent or long, continued noise such as barking, howling or screeching. Because § 15-65 exempts agricultural operations from every prohibition of the article, a rooster, a cattle herd or a hog barn falls outside that rule. Item (10) gives the same treatment to industrial and commercial facility operations as the article defines them.

The exemption speaks only of noise and only of this article. It sits alongside the county's other chapters, such as the land development regulations in Chapter 13, and does not rewrite them.