TITLE 22

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE

CHAPTER 6

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS

22-610.  Inspection — Sampling. (1) The department shall inspect, sample, analyze, and test fertilizers distributed within this state, at a time and place and to the extent the department deems necessary, to determine whether the fertilizers comply with this chapter. The department may stop any commercial vehicle transporting fertilizers on the public highways and direct it to the nearest scales approved by the department to check weights of fertilizers being delivered. The department may also, upon presentation of proper identification, enter any distributor’s premises, including any vehicle of transport, at all reasonable times in order to have access to fertilizers for sampling and to examine and make copies of records relating to their distribution.

(2)  The methods of sampling and analysis shall be those adopted by the department from officially recognized sources including, but not limited to, the association of American plant food control officials (AAPFCO) and the association of official analytical chemists, international (AOAC).

(3)  The department, in determining for administrative purposes whether a fertilizer is deficient in any component or total nutrients, shall be guided solely by the official sample as defined in section 22-603(21), Idaho Code, and obtained and analyzed as provided for in this section.

(4)  When the inspection and analysis of an official sample has been made, the department shall forward the results of the analysis to the distributor and manufacturer, and to the purchaser upon request. Upon written request and within thirty (30) days of the results of analysis, the department shall furnish to the distributor and/or manufacturer a portion of the sample concerned.

(5)  If analyses of samples made by the department indicate deficiencies in the fertilizer examined, below guaranteed analysis, and in excess of the tolerances specified by rules promulgated under this chapter, the department shall immediately notify the manufacturer and/or distributor of the fertilizer of the results of the analyses. The manufacturer or seller of the fertilizer may, upon written request, obtain from the department a portion of the sample(s) in question. If he fails to agree with the analyses of the department, he may request an umpire who shall be one (1) of a list of not less than three (3) public analysts of recognized ability in fertilizer analyses, who shall be named by the department. The umpire analyses shall be made at the expense of the manufacturer or seller requesting the same. If the umpire agrees more closely with the department, the figures of the department shall be considered correct. If the umpire agrees more closely with the figures of the manufacturer or distributor, then the figures of the manufacturer or distributor shall be considered correct.

(6)  Analysis of an official sample by the department shall be accepted as prima facie evidence by any court of competent jurisdiction.

History:

[22-610, added 2000, ch. 295, sec. 2, p. 1018; am. 2001, ch. 147, sec. 5, p. 521; am. 2008, ch. 131, sec. 6, p. 373.]