80-7-912. Prohibited acts. (1) It is unlawful for a person to certify or sell as certified or as noxious weed seed free any forage as free of noxious weed seed within this state, unless the forage is identified under a department-approved process as “Montana certified” and the forage meets all the requirements of this part. A person may not designate forage as certified or use any other title, designation, words, letters, abbreviations, sign, card, or identifier tending to indicate that the forage is certified unless the forage meets all the requirements of this part.

Terms Used In Montana Code 80-7-912

  • Certification: means the state-approved and documented process of determining within a standard range of variances or tolerances that forage production fields are free of the seeds of noxious weeds, as defined in 7-22-2101, which process allows a person to sell the forage as noxious weed seed free and to attach approved certification identification. See Montana Code 80-7-903
  • Forage: means any crop, including alfalfa, grass, small grains, straw, and similar crops and commodities, that is grown, harvested, and sold for livestock forage, bedding material, or mulch or related uses and the byproducts of those crops or commodities that have been processed into pellets, cubes, or related products. See Montana Code 80-7-903
  • Noxious weed seed free: means that forage has an absence of noxious weed seeds within a standardized range of variances or tolerances established by department rule. See Montana Code 80-7-903
  • Person: means a natural person, individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company, joint-stock association, body politic, or organized group of persons, whether incorporated or not, and any trustee, receiver, assignee, or similar representative. See Montana Code 80-7-903
  • Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
  • sell: means the selling, wholesaling, distributing, offering, exposing for sale, advertising, exchanging, brokering, bartering, or giving away by any person within this state of any forage as noxious weed seed free or certified or approved as noxious weed seed free. See Montana Code 80-7-903
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201

(2)Forage certified under a reciprocal agreement between the department and another state or Canadian province and identified according to approved certification standards to be shipped into the state or shipped to another state or province must meet the requirements of this part.

(3)All forage products used by public utilities and local, county, state, or federal agencies, including but not limited to mulches, bedding materials, and erosion control barriers, must be certified as noxious weed seed free. All seeds used for reclamation purposes by public utilities and local, county, state, or federal agencies must be free of noxious weed seeds and be certified seed according to Title 80, chapter 5.