Amplification of General Certification Standards

The General Standards are amplified as follows to apply specifically to forage Bermudagrass:

 

Only those fields planted with Registered or Foundation sprigs will be eligible for certification. This crop is produced under a limited generation system as defined in section XLI A.

 

For a field to be eligible for certification, the grower must notify the Association during the year of sprigging or sodding that he intends to certify subsequent crops, although he need not certify the crop the first or any subsequent year.

 

Land Requirements

A field to be eligible for the production of Foundation or Registered planting stock must have been free of other strains of the same species for two consecutive years preceeding the year that it is to be planted.

 

A field to be eligible for the production of Certified planting stock must have been free of other strains of the same species for one year preceeding the year that it is to be planted.

 

A field to be eligible for the production of Certified planting stock must have been thoroughly inspected at a time prior to planting, when objectionable plants can be determined, and must have been found to be free of noxious weeds and other strains of the same species. Further, the field being inspected must not have been tilled or otherwise molested prior to the inspection in such a way as to obscure objectionable plants.

 

Field Inspection

A field inspection must be made each year that a Registered or Certified crop is to be harvested during the growing season at a time when there is sufficient growth to make the identification of other strains possible. The field inspection should be made in the late summer or fall of the year preceeding the year the roots are to be dug.

 

Field Standards

 

General Requirements

Unit of Certification

The unit of certification shall be a field. The entire acreage standing at the time of inspection must be inspected as a unit.

 

Isolation

A field to be eligible for certification must be isolated from any other perennial grass by a barrier that will prevent encroachment or mechanical mixing during harvest.

 

Specific Requirements

¹Other varieties shall consist of all other strains of the species that can be differentiated from the variety that is being inspected.

 

Planting Stock Standards

• Pure living sprigs (minimum by count): 90.0%
• Other living plants (maximum by count): 2.0%
• Total objectionable weeds (maximum)¹ : None

¹Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) and nutgrass (Cyperus rotundus).