Hudson, NH Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Hudson's animal-noise ordinance, Chapter 188, would otherwise bar any noisy animal or fowl, defined to include livestock, poultry and other domestic animals, from making noise that is plainly audible for more than 10 minutes straight or 30 minutes intermittently. Section 188-3D(3), added when the Board of Selectmen rewrote the chapter on August 10, 2021, carves working farms out of that rule entirely, stating the section shall have no application to noises or disturbances made by livestock, fowl, or other animals emanating from a legitimate agricultural activity or legitimate farming operation, citing the state's Right to Farm statute, RSA 21:34-a, along with RSA 432 and RSA 674:32(a-d). The same subsection also excludes a properly permitted animal shelter and a properly zoned commercial boarding kennel from the noise rule.

A second, separate protection sits in Hudson's general noise ordinance, Chapter 249. Section 249-5A(5) lists farming equipment or farming activity among the exclusions from the Town-wide noise limits set out in Section 249-4, alongside natural phenomena, emergency sirens and school or church bells. Because that exclusion sits in the Exclusions subsection rather than the narrower Exemptions subsection, it applies without a time-of-day qualifier, unlike the noise the code otherwise polices only between set hours.

Together, the two sections mean Hudson farms, whether raising livestock and fowl at a property like Alvirne High School's working farm or running tractors and other equipment on cropland, are not subject to either the Chapter 188 noisy-animal fines or the Chapter 249 noise-limit fines that apply to every other noise source in Town.