Section 10.8 - Harvesting, Processing, and Storing(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.4 Tex. Admin. Code § 10.8
The provisions of this §10.8 adopted to be effective September 2, 1996, 21 TexReg 7955; amended to be effective December 24, 2003, 28 TexReg 11254