The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that a Madison, Georgia, seed company has paid USDA $11,425 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 eleven shipments of grass seed mixtures, red fescue, tall fescue, and timothy seed to Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

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

• false labeling as to pure seed, inert matter, 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; 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 Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Virginia 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.