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What does the plant variety protection (PVP) and seed law mean to you? It means it is not legal to buy, sell or trade a PVP-protected variety or plant it without the proper paperwork. If a seed lot has any of a protected variety in it, it must be labeled and sold with the proper paperwork. These laws have been in existence for several years, but have not been enforced until recently. This means the days of "brown bag," "bin run" or "variety not stated (VNS)" seed are over for many varieties. It means you need to make preparations well in advance of planting to have the seed you need. This information is being passed along to make producers aware of the law and what they can do to comply with the law. What can small-grain forage producers do? Grow your own seed. Plant enough acres for grain each year to use for your own seed the following year. This will require being able to harvest and store the grain. This CANNOT be done with patented varieties or varieties containing patented genes. Plant a public wheat variety. This will require working with a seed supplier that can and will produce sufficient quantities of public or unprotected seed to meet your needs. Grow a public rye variety for forage. Oklon, Elbon, Maton and Bates are all public varieties. Typically rye is better suited for sandy soil, will do equally as well on loamy soil and provides earlier forage in the fall. Rye also tends to be easier to establish than wheat. Plant certified seed. This assures that all the paperwork requirements are met. In some instances, like acidic or low pH soil, it is beneficial to get a known variety that will perform well under specific soil conditions. For more information, contact Oklahoma Foundation Seed Stocks or Texas Foundation Seed Service. The following Notice to Industry was written by and reprinted with permission from the Oklahoma Ag Retailers Association. * * * NOTICE TO INDUSTRY * * * Grain elevator operators and seed companies that are involved in any way, shape or form in providing seed wheat to a producer for planting purposes need to be aware of the provisions of the federal Plant Variety Protection Act (PVP), Title V of the Federal Seed Act and the Oklahoma Seed Law. Potential liability implications exist if a facility is selling or selling and spreading wheat for seed for a producer. The PVP is a federal law designed to promote the developments of new varieties by allowing the variety owner to determine who may sell seed of that particular variety. The law prohibits the sale of any PVP seed, including farmer saved, without the permission of the variety owner. Title V of the Federal Seed Act specifies that PVP protected varieties can be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed. The PVP law also states that the seller must also give notice that the lot is a PVP variety. Enforcement of the PVP law is left up to the owner of the PVP variety through civil court action. Seed produced from a PVP variety cannot be sold, advertised, offered, delivered, consigned, exchanged or exposed for sale without explicit authorization by the proprietary seed owner. A consumer cannot, legally, knowingly purchase wheat labeled VNS, or mixed wheat, or pasture wheat, etc., containing a PVP variety to use for planting purposes. Growers are granted an exemption for which they can collect and save seed produced from any legally purchased PVP protected variety they wish for their OWN future planting. They cannot sell, trade or transfer a PVP protected variety to others for planting purposes. In reality, enforcement of the provisions of the PVP Act and Title V of the Federal Seed Act in the hard red winter wheat region has been pretty much non-existent. This is changing. AgriPro wheat is following the lead of other private seed companies with PVP or patent crops that have been successful in enforcement in North Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi and other southern states. AgriPro has made it clear they will begin enforcement of their PVP rights on their hard red winter wheats. They have already settled civil law suits with farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Texas and Oklahoma. This effort to begin enforcement of the PVP could have a dramatic effect upon any grain elevator or seed company that sells "bin run" or "variety not stated" (vns) wheat to a producer to plant, or sells and spreads it via applicator equipment. Technically, if a facility provides wheat to a producer that in turn is used for seed, or sells and spreads it for him (i.e., planting) and this variety has a PVP, then the facility is in violation of the PVP Act. The Oklahoma Seed Law says that ANY KIND OF SEED that is sold has four major requirements.
Examples of Violations
Suggestions
Below is a list of the more popular wheat varieties grown in Oklahoma that have a PVP: (2) Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited - US Variety Protection applied for specifying that seed of this variety is to be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed. (3) Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited - US Protected Variety. (4) Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited - to be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed - US Protected Variety. (6) Unauthorized Propagation Prohibited - to be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed - US Protected Variety - 1994 PVPA. |
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© 1997-2008 by The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc.
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