As used in the New Mexico Fertilizer Act:

A. "board" means the board of regents of New Mexico state university;

B. "department" means the New Mexico department of agriculture;

C. "fertilizer" means any substance that contains one or more recognized plant nutrients and that is used for its plant nutrient content and is designed for use or claimed to have value in promoting plant growth, except unmanipulated animal and vegetable manures, marl limes, limestone, wood ashes, gypsum and other products exempt by rule of the board;

D. "fertilizer material" means a fertilizer that either:

(1) contains important quantities of no more than one of the primary plant nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5) and potash (K2O);

(2) has eighty-five percent of its plant nutrient content present in the form of a single chemical compound; or

(3) is derived from a plant or animal residue or byproduct or a natural material deposit that has been processed in such a way that its content of plant nutrients has not been materially changed except by purification and concentration;

E. "specialty fertilizer" means a fertilizer distributed primarily for nonfarm use such as home gardens, lawns, shrubbery, flowers, golf courses, municipal parks, cemeteries, greenhouses and nurseries and may include fertilizers used for research or experimental purposes;

F. "bulk fertilizers" means fertilizers distributed in a nonpackaged form;

G. "brand" means a term, design or trademark under which one or more fertilizers or soil conditioners are distributed in New Mexico;

H. "guaranteed analysis" means the minimum percentage of plant nutrients claimed in the order and form as prescribed by the board;

I. "grade" means the percentages of total nitrogen, available phosphorus or phosphate and soluble potassium or soluble potash stated in whole numbers in the same terms, order and percentages as in the guaranteed analysis; provided, however, that fertilizer materials, bone meal, manures and similar raw materials may be guaranteed in fractional units;

J. "official sample" means any sample of fertilizer or soil conditioner taken by the department unless designated otherwise;

K. "ton" means a net weight of two thousand pounds avoirdupois;

L. "percent" or "percentage" means the percentage by weight;

M. "person" includes individual, partnership, association, firm and corporation;

N. "distributor" means a person that imports, consigns, manufactures, produces, compounds, mixes or blends fertilizer or soil conditioner or that offers for sale, sells, barters or otherwise supplies fertilizer or soil conditioner in the state;

O. "registrant" means the person that registers a fertilizer or soil conditioner under the provisions of the New Mexico Fertilizer Act;

P. "label" means the display of all written, printed or graphic matter upon the immediate container or statement accompanying a fertilizer or soil conditioner;

Q. "labeling" means all written, printed or graphic matter upon or accompanying a fertilizer or soil conditioner;

R. "soil conditioner" means a substance or mixture of substances intended for sale, offered for sale or sold for manurial, soil enriching or soil corrective purposes or intended to be used for promoting or stimulating the growth of plants, increasing the productivity of plants, improving the quality of crops or producing a chemical or physical change in the soil, except fertilizer as defined in this section, unmanipulated animal and vegetable manures and other products exempted by rules of the board;

S. "blender" means a person or system engaged in the business of blending fertilizer, including both mobile and fixed equipment used in blending;

T. "blending" means the physical mixing or combining of fertilizer materials and filler materials as provided in Paragraphs (1) through (3) of this subsection, including mixing through the simultaneous or sequential application of any of the combinations provided in this subsection, to produce a uniform mixture:

(1) one or more fertilizer materials and one or more filler materials;

(2) two or more fertilizer materials; or

(3) two or more fertilizer materials and filler materials;

U. "custom blend" means a fertilizer blended according to specifications provided to a blender in a soil test nutrient recommendation or to meet the specific consumer's request prior to blending;

V. "deficiency" means the amount of nutrient found by analysis to be less than the guaranteed amount, which may result from a lack of nutrient ingredients or from lack of uniformity;

W. "investigational allowance" means an allowance for variations inherent in the taking, preparation and analysis of an official sample of fertilizer; and

X. "primary nutrient" means total nitrogen, available phosphate and soluble potash.

History: 1953 Comp., § 45-13-13, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 184, § 3; 1975, ch. 181, § 3; 2013, ch. 112, § 2.

The 2013 amendment, effective June 14, 2013, clarified terms and added new terms relating to blending and the nutrient content of fertilizer; in Subsections C through E, G, J and N through R, deleted "commercial" before "fertilizer"; in Subsections C and R, deleted "regulation" and added "rule"; in Subsection D, in Paragraph (1), after "nitrogen", added "(N)", after "nitrogen (N)", deleted "phosphoric acid", added "phosphate (P2O5)", and after "potash", deleted "or" and added "(K2O)", in Paragraph (2), after "has", deleted "approximately", and in Paragraph (3), after "its content of", deleted "primary"; in Subsection I, after "phosphorus or", deleted "phosphoric acid" and added "phosphate"; and added Subsections S though X.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 3 C.J.S. Agriculture § 74.