The annual fee for the plate is $35 in addition to your regular car registration fees and $2 administrative fees. So if you have a standard plate now that costs $45, then adding the Farm & Ranch Community plate would make your total fee $82.

For one year, the same length of time that a regular license plate is valid.

The first $12 of the $37 additional fee is retained (by statute) by the N.M. Motor Vehicle Department to cover the costs of printing the plate and administering the program. The remaining $25 is turned over to the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum’s Education Department to support their programming.

The Museum plans to use the money to enhance the Big Yellow School Bus Fund, a program developed in 2006 to offer “bus scholarships” to help schools offset the costs of a field trip visit to the Museum. A school is typically charged $100-300 for each bus they need when they take a field trip.

Contact the Curator of Education at the Museum for more information.

No. If you want to legally continue to display the plate on your vehicle as part of your car registration, you will have to pay the $35 fee (in addition to your regular registration) each year. The good news is that $25 of that $35 will go to support the Museum’s educational programs each year!

Consult your CPA or financial advisor regarding the possible tax deductions for this fee. No, the Museum cannot document your fee as a contribution. Since the fee is paid to the Motor Vehicle Department, it has to be treated as part of your vehicle registration fee, not as a charitable contribution to the Museum. Due to privacy laws, the Motor Vehicle Department cannot share any information about Farm & Ranch Community license plate holders with the Museum, so there is no way for the Museum to document or authenticate a contribution.

Yes. You would pay your two-year fee plus $72 ($35 for each year + $2 administrative fee)

You can get one now! Fill out the application and send the $35 plate fee + $2 administrative fee to MVD. They will automatically add the fee to your vehicle registration when your annual renewal comes due.

If you are within sixty days of your renewal date, you can renew and get the new plate at the same time. Just complete your application and take everything to your local MVD office.

You can pick one up at your local MVD office or through the MVD web site. We’ve also set up a link to the application on the Museum web site if you click here.

No, by state statute customized (or prestige) plates can only be issued for the standard yellow or Centennial turquoise plate styles.

Unfortunately no. One would have to switch to a handicap window placard if you want to have the Farm & Ranch Community plate.

The Museum is trying to determine if there is a way to offer a discount in its Museum Membership Program to Farm & Ranch Community license plate holders.

The Museum is considering licensing the design to the Friends of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum so additional products like T-shirts and blank front license tags can be produced and sold. Proceeds from the licensing agreement would also be used to support Museum programs and activities by the Friends.

Representative Brian Egolf of Santa Fe, responding to an inquiry from a local constituent, introduced legislation in 2009 to create a Farm & Ranch Community license plate. In that legislation, Egolf designated the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces as the financial beneficiary of the funds raised from the sale of the plate. Governor Bill Richardson signed the bill after passage by the State Legislature, with the provision that the plate not be issued until after July 2010. The Farm & Ranch Community plate became available for vehicle registration from the state Motor Vehicle Division in December 2010.

The design was selected by the Museum’s governing Board of Directors from a slate of possibilities generated by graphic artists on the Museum staff.