The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that a Halsey, Oregon seed company has paid USDA $1,500 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.

The company, DLF International Seeds, 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 three shipments of lawn seed mixtures, alleged to be in violation of the Federal Seed Act; there was one shipment each to Kentucky, Nebraska and Tennessee.

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

• false labeling as to germination rate
• false labeling as to date of test
• false labeling as to pure seed, and other crop seed
• false labeling as to variety name
• failure to keep or supply a complete record of seed
• false labeling as to origin of seed

AMS administers the act with the help of state seed officials. Seed regulatory officials in Kentucky, Missouri 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.