The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that a Madison, Ga., seed company has paid USDA $28,325 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.

The company, Pennington Seed, Inc., settled the case in agreement with officials from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The company neither admitted nor denied the charges.

The case, resolved by the settlement, involved 30 shipments of Bermudagrass, grass seed mixtures, Kentucky bluegrass, red fescue, striate lespedeza, rye, and tall fescue seed to Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas.

The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments, were:

• false labeling as to pure seed, other crop seed, and germination percentages, rate of occurrence of noxious-weed seeds, kind name, variety name, and test date;
• failure to label the presence of noxious-weed seeds;
• shipping seed containing noxious-weed seeds in excess of State’s limits;
• failure to attach labels; and
• failure to keep required records, including those establishing the kind and variety name.

AMS administers the act with the help of state seed officials. Seed regulatory officials in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas cooperated with AMS in making the investigations. The Federal Seed Act is a truth-in-labeling law designed to protect farmers and consumers who buy seed.