Preface

It is in the public interest, and more specifically in the interest of the agricultural
industry of the State of Oklahoma, the following purposes, responsibilities and
procedures be strictly adhered to.

 

No person, firm or corporation shall engage in business as an Approved Certified
Seed Conditioner within the State of Oklahoma, except upon compliance with the
provisions of these Regulations.

 

The purpose of seed certification is to maintain and make available to the public
high quality seed and propagating materials of adapted superior crop varieties so
grown and distributed as to insure varietal identity and purity

 

The joint responsibility of the Certified Seed Grower and the Approved Certified
Seed Conditioner is to assure that certified seed meet the minimum field and
seed quality requirements and that the varietal integrity is maintained before the
seed is made available to the general public.

 

The responsibility of the Oklahoma Crop Improvement Association in supervising
the seed certification program is to promote the adequate production and
distribution of certified seed with a minimum of inconvenience to the producer
and distributor.

 

Requirements for Qualification as a Certified Seed Conditioner

Any person, firm or corporation desiring to become an approved certified seed conditioner shall make application to the Oklahoma Crop Improvement Association no later than April 15 of the calendar year in which such approval is sought. The type of crops intended to be handled must be specified in each application. Each application must be accompanied by an annual fee of seventy five dollars ($75.00). Applications received after May 15th will be subject to an additional $50 late fee.

 

Before any person, firm or corporation is approved as an approved certified seed conditioner it must be determined that he or it is in good standing with existing state and federal seed control agencies.

 

Before any person, firm or corporation is approved as an approved certified seed conditioner, satisfactory proof shall be made that his or its facility is provided with the following minimum equipment:

 

1. A cleaner equipped with not less than two and preferably four separate screens for a single cleaning operation. Such cleaners must be equipped with traveling brushes or ball trays beneath screens, variable air blast and/or vacuum pick-up.
2. Intakes to bins must be such that they can be completely blocked off during the period the bin contains certified seed. All bins in which certified seed is to be stored must be so located that there will be no possible source of contamination from above.
3. All parts, elevator heads, elevating equipment, spoutings, and elevator castings must be such that they can be thoroughly cleaned. The elevator head must have an inspection plate or be such that it may be removed for thorough cleaning and inspection. All elevator cups must
   be separated from elevator belts by a washer of at least ¼ inch in thickness for ease of cleaning.
4. If a sacking bin is used, it must be so constructed and equipped that it can be thoroughly and completely cleaned.
5. Plants requesting approval for the cleaning of small seeded legumes and grasses must be equipped with additional special equipment necessary to clean seed to certification standards in addition to the equipment mentioned above.
6. It is desirable that the plant be equipped with a seed treater for purposes of disinfecting planting seed.
7. Plants requesting approval must be equipped with an industrial type vacuum cleaner and blower in order to thoroughly clean all equipment prior to the processing of a lot of certified seed.
8. All cleaners, bins, floors, augers, and other equipment where certified seed is handled must be so constructed and arranged that they can be easily cleaned prior to cleaning of certified seed.
9. If not handled in bulk, new bags or containers must be used for the packaging of certified seed conditioned by an Approved Conditioner.
10. The identity of all certified seed must be maintained at all times. All storage facilities whether bins, boxes, bags, or other containers must be identified with crop, variety, certification class, lot number, and source of seed.

 

Each application to become an Approved Certified Seed Conditioner shall cover only one conditioning plant. Any person, firm, or corporation owning more than one conditioning plant must submit a separate application and $75.00 fee for each plant in which it is desired to condition certified seed.

 

Inspections

Periodic inspections will be made of all Oklahoma Approved Conditioners to ensure that the quality guidelines required by OCIA are being maintained. The OCIA shall also have the right to inspect the facilities of any certified seed conditioner, as herein defined, during the conditioning of any lot of seed. If requested by the Association, the conditioner shall notify said Association two days in advance of the date conditioning of any particular lot of seed will begin.

 

Conditioning Fees

An annual fee of $75.00 will maintain the applicant as an Approved Conditioner. Applications received after May 15th will be subject to an additional $50 late fee.

 

Oklahoma Crop Improvement Association Representative

In each plant approved for the conditioning of certified seed, some competent person in the facility who actually supervises the conditioning operation shall be assigned the responsibility of faithfully complying with the provisions of those regulations and with the regulations of any written agreement entered into by and between the approved certified seed conditioner and the Oklahoma Crop Improvement Association relative to the handling of certified seed.

 

Records

Conditioners shall maintain a complete and separate system of records showing all details pertaining to the receiving and conditioning of certified classes of seed. These records shall include all grower tags removed from bags of seed, copies of receiving, cleaning, conditioning, and bulking records showing the varietal name of the seed, weight of seed in each component lot, the weight of the recleaned seed, conditioning lots, and the conditioned certified seed tag with the certified lot number assigned to the lot of conditioned seed.

 

Reports

Form “C” must be delivered to the Approved Conditioner by the grower following field inspection and approval for certification by a representative of OCIA. The original copy is to be mailed to the OCIA office by the grower. The conditioner keeps the second copy and returns the third copy to the applicant upon completion of conditioning. The failure of the grower or the conditioner to handle these reports as instructed may prevent final certification of the seed.

 

The following pages are guidelines and example forms showing the correct method for completing and submitting required information for certified seed.

 

Seed Sampling Procedures for Certified Seed

No matter how accurate the seed analysis, it reveals only the quality of the sample submitted. Therefore, it is important that certain procedures be followed in collecting seed samples for testing purposes which most nearly represent the seed of a given lot.

 

1. General Procedures
   1. To secure a representative sample, equal portions shall be taken from evenly distributed parts of the seed to be sampled.
   2. For free-flowing seed in bags or bulk a probe or trier long enough to sample all portions should be used.
   3. Non-free flowing seed, such as certain grasses and other seeds difficult to sample with probe or trier, shall be sampled by hand in the bulk and withdrawing representative portions.
   4. Bulk seeds shall be sampled by inserting a long probe or thrusting the hand into the bulk, as circumstances require, in at least seven (7) uniformly distributed parts of the quantity being sampled.
2. Obtaining a “Submitted Sample”
   1. Seed in bags:
      1. When more than one core is drawn from a bag, follow different paths. When more than one handful is taken from a bag, take them from well separated points.
      2. For lots of one to six bags, obtain a sample from each bag.
      3. For lots of more than six bags, sample five bags plus 10% of the number of bags in the lot. Regardless of the lot size, it is not necessary to sample more than thirty (30) bags.
      4. Example: Number of bags in lot- 7 10 23 100 200 300. Number of bags in sample- 6 6 7 15 25 30.
   2. Bulk Seed
      1. To obtain a composite sample, take at least as many cores or handfuls as if the same quantity of seed were in bags of an ordinary size. Take the cores or handfuls from well distributed points throughout the bulk.

 

Laboratory Guide for Growers and/or Conditioners of Certified Seed

 

Procedure for Submitting Samples to Laboratory

Submit Correct Amount

A representative sample of the seed as it is to be sold shall be submitted for laboratory analysis. Please note that a purity analysis cannot be conducted on TREATED seed. If the seed is to be treated prior to marketing, both an untreated and a treated sample must be submitted. The treated sample must be labeled as “TREATED”, showing the kind of treatment used. The following are correct amounts of seed to be submitted and current fees for pedigreed seed samples (fees subject to change).  

 

Certified samples will be tested on a first come, first served basis. Service samples must be sent to a state or commercial laboratory for testing.

 

Seed samples containing crop or variety mixtures (each component equals more than 5% of the sample by weight) requiring separation will be charged for the number of crops or varieties contained in the mixture. For example, if a mixture contains wheat, rye and vetch, the fee charged will be three times the regular purity fee and three times the germination fee. Cost for trashy samples to be determined for germination and purity analysis. Cost of Tetrazolium (TZ) tests to be determined. 

 

Package Seed Properly

All samples must be submitted in addressed mailing bags supplied by the OCIA office. If additional bags are needed, please contact the OCIA office. 

 

Many times samples have been received in the laboratory that were damaged in transit simply because they were not properly and securely packaged. When a sample is received in the laboratory that has been damaged in the mail to the extent that seed has been lost or co-mingled, we must request that another sample be sent. This delay is unnecessary and time consuming both for the testing laboratory, the OCIA office and the certified seed grower.

 

Important! The Following Information From the Grower Must Accompany Each Sample Submitted to the Laboratory

 

1. Name and mailing address of grower
2. Lot Number
3. Crop and variety of sample
4. Class of seed (Registered or Certified)
5. Condition of seed (Cleaned or Uncleaned) (1) If the seed is cleaned by an OCIA approved conditioner, please give the name of the conditioner.
6. Indicate service desired
   (1) Purity Only
   (2) Germination Only
   (3) Purity analysis and germination test
7. Indicate year seed was produced
   (1) This is necessary only if seed was produced in a preceding year’s seed. Be sure to include the original lot number under which the seed was first certified and the certification (“D”) number.
8. Grower should indicate type of test desired (Charges are the same).
   (1) Preliminary test
   (2) Final test
   (3) Retest

 

Description of Test

Preliminary test may be desired by the grower to determine the quality of seed or
conditioning needed. This is NOT considered official and certification cannot be issued on such a test.

 

Final test can be the same as a “Preliminary Test” but in addition it is official and
certification may be issued on the Final Test. Samples that do not meet minimum certification requirements and are “rejected” may be resubmitted upon being reconditioned.

 

Retest is self-explanatory in that it is a “retest” of a previously tested lot of seed. If a sample is resubmitted, it should be marked “Retest” and show the same grower’s lot number under which it was previously submitted.

 

Correct Mailing Address

All samples must be sent to the following laboratory for testing unless otherwise
directed by the OCIA office:

 

OK Dept of Agriculture, Seed Lab

2800 N. Lincoln Blvd.

P.O. Box 528804

Oklahoma City, OK 73152

 

Sterling Seed Testing

11937 US Hwy 81

Dover, OK 73734-5851

 

Vendor's Statement of Analysis

It is a requirement of state and federal law that all seed sold must be labeled with a vendor’s statement of analysis. The following information is required on either the certification tag or a separate seed analysis label: 

 

• Kind and variety
• Lot number
• Origin
• Purity (pure seed, inert matter, other crop seed, weed seed)
• Noxious weed seed statement
• Germination
• Date of Test
• Name & Address of Labeler
• Net Weight (or Bulk) statement

 

Example of seed analysis labeling:

 

U.R Grower

Anytown, OK

 

Net Wt. 50#

(or bulk weight can be shown on sales invoice)

 

Information Necessary to Obtain Seed Certification Tags

1. Number of tags
2. Type and quantity of tags (sew-on or pressure sensitive – a minimum of 10 tags is required for either type)
3. Class of tags (Registered or Certified)
4. Crop and variety
5. Properly assigned lot number
6. OCIA certification lot number (the “D” number)
7. Grower’s name and address
8. Method of tag shipment (parcel post, UPS, etc.)
9. Year seed was produced