[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 9]
[Revised as of January 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR1124.7]

[Page 161-163]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
  CHAPTER X--AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Marketing Agreements and 
                 Orders; Milk) DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 1124_MILK IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST MARKETING AREA--Table 
of Contents
 
                    Subpart_Order Regulating Handling
 
Sec. 1124.7  Pool plant.

    Pool plant means a plant, unit of plants, or a system of plants as 
specified in paragraphs (a) through (f) of this section, but excluding a 
plant specified in paragraph (h) of this section. The pooling standards 
described in paragraph (c) of this section are subject to modification 
pursuant to paragraph (g) of this section:
    (a) A distributing plant, other than a plant qualified as a pool 
plant pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section or Sec. --------.7(b) 
of any other Federal milk order, from which during the month 25 percent 
or more of the total quantity of fluid milk products physically received 
at the plant (excluding concentrated milk received from another plant by 
agreement for other than Class I use) are disposed of as route 
disposition or are transferred in the form of packaged fluid milk 
products to other distributing plants. At least 25 percent of such route 
disposition and transfers must be to outlets in the marketing area.
    (b) Any distributing plant located in the marketing area which 
during the month processed at least 25 percent of

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the total quantity of fluid milk products physically received at the 
plant (excluding concentrated milk received from another plant by 
agreement for other than Class I use) into ultra-pasteurized or 
aseptically-processed fluid milk products.
    (c) A supply plant from which during any month not less than 20 
percent of the total quantity of milk that is physically received at 
such plant from dairy farmers eligible to be producers pursuant to Sec. 
1124.12 (excluding milk received at such plant as diverted milk from 
another plant, which milk is classified other than Class I under the 
order in this part and is subject to the pricing and pooling provisions 
of this or another order issued pursuant to the Act) or diverted as 
producer milk to another plant pursuant to Sec. 1124.13, is shipped in 
the form of a fluid milk product (excluding concentrated milk 
transferred by agreement for other than Class I use) to a pool 
distributing plant or is a route disposition in the marketing area of 
fluid milk products processed and packaged at such plant;
    (1) A supply plant that has qualified as a pool plant during each of 
the immediately preceding months of September through February shall 
continue to so qualify in each of the following months of March through 
August, unless the plant operator files a written request with the 
market administrator that such plant not be a pool plant, such nonpool 
status to be effective the first month following such request and 
thereafter until the plant qualifies as a pool plant on the basis of 
milk shipments;
    (2) No plant may qualify as a pool plant due to a reduction in the 
shipping percentage pursuant to paragraph (g) of this section unless it 
has been a pool supply plant during each of the immediately preceding 3 
months.
    (d) A manufacturing plant located within the marketing area and 
operated by a cooperative association, or its wholly owned subsidiary, 
if, during the month, or the immediately preceding 12-month period 
ending with the current month, 20 percent or more of the producer milk 
of members of the association (and any producer milk of nonmembers and 
members of another cooperative association which may be marketed by the 
cooperative association) is physically received in the form of bulk 
fluid milk products (excluding concentrated milk transferred to a 
distributing plant for an agreed-upon use other that Class I) at plants 
specified in paragraph (a) or (b) of this section either directly from 
farms or by transfer from supply plants operated by the cooperative 
association, or its wholly owned subsidiary, and from plants of the 
cooperative association, or its wholly owned subsidiary, for which pool 
plant status has been requested under this paragraph subject to the 
following conditions:
    (1) The plant does not qualify as a pool plant under paragraph (a), 
(b), or (c) of this section or under comparable provisions of another 
Federal order; and
    (2) The plant is approved by a duly constituted regulatory agency 
for the handling of milk approved for fluid consumption in the marketing 
area.
    (3) A request is filed in writing with the market administrator 
before the first day of the month for which it is to be effective. The 
request will remain in effect until a cancellation request is filed in 
writing with the market administrator before the first day of the month 
for which the cancellation is to be effective.
    (e) [Reserved]
    (f) A system of two or more plants identified in Sec. 1124.7(d) 
operated by one or more cooperative handlers may qualify for pooling by 
meeting the above shipping requirements subject to the following 
additional requirements:
    (1) The cooperative handler(s) establishing the system submits a 
written request to the market administrator on or before the first day 
of the month for which the system is to be effective requesting that 
such plants qualify as a system. Such request will contain a list of the 
plants participating in the system in the order, beginning with the last 
plant, in which the plants will be dropped from the system if the system 
fails to qualify. Each plant that qualifies as a pool plant within a 
system shall continue each month as a plant in the system until the 
handler(s) establishing the system submits a written request before the 
first day of the month to the market administrator

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that the plant be deleted from the system or that the system be 
discontinued. Any plant that has been so deleted from a system, or that 
has failed to qualify in any month, will not be part of any system. In 
the event of an ownership change or the business failure of a handler 
that is a participant in the system, the system may be reorganized to 
reflect such a change if a written request to file a new marketing 
agreement is submitted to the market administrator; and
    (2) If a system fails to qualify under the requirement of this 
paragraph, the handler responsible for qualifying the system shall 
notify the market administrator of which plant or plants will be deleted 
from the system so that the remaining plants may be pooled as a system. 
If the handler fails to do so, the market administrator shall exclude 
one or more plants, beginning at the bottom of the list of plants in the 
system and continue up the list as necessary until the deliveries are 
sufficient to qualify the remaining plants in the system.
    (g) The applicable shipping percentage of paragraphs (c) and (d) of 
this section may be increased or decreased by the market administrator 
if the market administrator finds that such adjustment is necessary to 
encourage needed shipments or to prevent uneconomic shipments. Before 
making such a finding, the market administrator shall investigate the 
need for adjustment either on the market administrator's own initiative 
or at the request of interested parties if the request is made in 
writing at least 15 days prior to the month for which the requested 
revision is desired to be effective. If the investigation shows that an 
adjustment of the shipping percentages might be appropriate, the market 
administrator shall issue a notice stating that an adjustment is being 
considered and invite data, views and arguments. Any decision to revise 
an applicable shipping percentage must be issued in writing at least one 
day before the effective date.
    (h) The term pool plant shall not apply to the following plants:
    (1) A producer-handler as defined under any Federal order;
    (2) An exempt plant as defined in Sec. 1000.8(e);
    (3) A plant located within the marketing area and qualified pursuant 
to paragraph (a) of this section which meets the pooling requirements of 
another Federal order, and from which more than 50 percent of its route 
disposition has been in the other Federal order marketing area for 3 
consecutive months;
    (4) A plant located outside any Federal order marketing area and 
qualified pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section that meets the 
pooling requirements of another Federal order and has had greater route 
disposition in such other Federal order's marketing area for 3 
consecutive months;
    (5) A plant located in another Federal order marketing area and 
qualified pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section that meets the 
pooling requirements of such other Federal order and does not have a 
majority of its route distribution in this marketing area for 3 
consecutive months or if the plant is required to be regulated under 
such other Federal order without regard to its route disposition in any 
other Federal order marketing area; and
    (6) A plant qualified pursuant to paragraph (c) of this section 
which also meets the pooling requirements of another Federal order and 
from which greater qualifying shipments are made to plants regulated 
under the other Federal order than are made to plants regulated under 
the order in this part, or the plant has automatic pooling status under 
the other Federal order.

[64 FR 47998, Sept. 1, 1999, as amended at 67 FR 69669, Nov. 19, 2002]