Part 1.
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Chapter 20.
COTTON PEST CONTROL
The Texas Department of Agriculture (the department) adopts amendments
to §§20.1, 20.20 and 20.22, concerning the department's cotton pest
control program requirements, without changes to the proposed text, as published
in the January 20, 2006, issue of the
Texas Register
(31 TexReg 363). The amendments are adopted to update and clarify
definitions, reclassify Pest Management Zone 5 as Pest Management Zone 3 Area
(3), and strengthen enforcement of the Cotton Stalk Destruction (CSD) deadline.
Amendments to §20.1 are adopted to clarify the definition of non-hostable
as it relates to cotton in the field, and to strengthen the definition of
volunteer cotton by removing references to when incidental seeds might have
germinated.
Amendments to §20.20 are adopted in response to producer requests
from Pest Management Zone 5. The adopted changes will reclassify Pest Management
Zone 5 to Area (3) of Pest Management Zone 3. This change will benefit producers
in the affected counties by maintaining their locally appropriate planting
and stalk destruction dates while improving their organizational situation.
Because counties in Pest Management Zone 3 and those in Pest Management Zone
5 are adjacent and have similar production practices, combining the two zones
will promote coordinated decision-making about stalk destruction requirements.
Amendments to §20.22 are adopted to implement the unanimous request
of the Pest Management Zone 9 Cotton Producer Advisory Committee (CPAC) to
delay their CSD deadline until March 1 and the unanimous request of the Pest
Management Zone 10 CPAC to modify their stalk destruction requirements to
reflect modern production practices in that area. The amendments to §20.22
are further adopted to refine procedures for processing electronically transmitted
requests for individual extensions and to clarify the standards for granting
individual extensions for fields that have been declared a public nuisance
by the department.
No comments were received on the proposal.
Subchapter A. GENERAL PROVISIONS