Texas Administrative Code › Title 4 - AGRICULTURE › Part 1 - TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE › Chapter 10 - SEED CERTIFICATION STANDARDS › Subchapter A - GENERAL REQUIREMENTS › Section 10.8 - Harvesting, Processing, and Storing

Current through Reg. 49, No.
				  28; July 12, 2024
(a)
				  Care must be exercised in harvesting to avoid admixing of the variety in
				  harvesting equipment and in the transporting vehicle. The applicant must see
				  that this equipment is thoroughly cleaned in order to safeguard the purity of
				  the seed. Identity of the seed must be maintained at all times. Certified seed
				  must be conditioned, delinted or ginned by a facility that has been approved by
				  the department.
(b) A seed
				  conditioning, delinting or gin facility operated by a person who owns or
				  produces a certified seed variety is subject to inspection by the department
				  during normal business hours. Inspection of the facility includes access to any
				  records or physical areas necessary to show compliance with seed conditioning,
				  delinting or ginning requirements. Failure to permit inspection of the facility
				  shall be grounds for denial of certification for any seed lots for which
				  certification labels are requested and for which the department has determined
				  an inspection is required to ensure compliance with certification standards. If
				  a person who owns or produces a certified seed variety uses a seed
				  conditioning, delinting or gin facility not operated by the person, the person
				  shall, prior to receiving certification labels, file with the department a copy
				  of a conditioning, delinting or ginning contract between the person and the
				  operator of the seed conditioning, delinting or gin facility that contains
				  provisions which impose a duty on the operator of the seed conditioning,
				  delinting or gin facility to comply with state and federal certification
				  standards, including these rules, when conditioning, delinting or ginning the
				  person's seed and which impose a duty on the operator of said facility to
				  permit the same department inspection activities that are required for
				  conditioning, delinting or gin facilities operated by an owner or producer of a
				  certified seed variety. The contract must be signed and dated by both the owner
				  or producer of the certified seed variety and the operator, or operator's
				  authorized agent, of the seed conditioning, delinting or gin facility.
				  Exemplars of acceptable contract provisions may be obtained from the department
				  upon request. The owner or producer of a certified seed variety is responsible
				  for ensuring that seed conditioning, delinting and/or ginning requirements are
				  met and access to facilities for inspection granted to department personnel.
				  Should any third party conditioner, delinter or ginner under contract fail to
				  meet the requirements or refuse inspection, the owner or producer of the
				  certified seed variety shall be denied certification for any seed lots for
				  which certification labels are requested and for which the department has
				  determined an inspection is required to ensure compliance with certification
				  standards.
(c) Facilities shall be
				  capable of performing seed conditioning without introducing
				  admixtures.
(d) When different
				  classes of certified seed, or when certified seed and noncertified seed of the
				  same variety or when two or more varieties of the same kind are handled,
				  adequate precautions shall be taken so as to prevent contamination and to
				  maintain the identity of each seed lot. All equipment used in seed conditioning
				  must be thoroughly cleaned before any eligible seed is handled. Identity of
				  seed must be maintained at all times.
(e) Records of all operations relating to
				  certification shall be complete and adequate to account for all incoming seed
				  and final disposition of seed.
(f)
				  Prior to reconditioning seed bearing the certification labels, an approved
				  inspector must supervise the removal of said labels which are to be surrendered
				  to the inspector.
(g) Seed lots of
				  the same variety and class may be blended and the class retained. If lots of
				  different classes are blended, the lowest class shall be applied to the
				  resultant blend. Such blending can only be done when authorized by the Seed
				  Quality Program. The blend is a new lot which shall be sampled and tested in
				  compliance with the commodity standards.