62708.5
. (a) A producer-handler, for purposes of this chapter,
shall also include, as a separate and distinct category of
producer-handlers, any producer and any handler who purchases or
handles fluid milk or fluid cream produced by this producer if all of
the ownership of the handler and all of the ownership of the
producer is owned by the same person or persons and their ownership
in the producer or handler is at least 95 percent identical for each
person with their ownership in the handler or producer. This
ownership shall not exceed 10 individual persons or owners of
equitable interest in a partnership, corporation, or other legally
constituted business association.
(b) The ownership required by this section may be through a
partnership, corporation, or other legally constituted business
association if the entities are owned by the same person or persons,
and there is at least 95 percent identity of ownership for each
person with their ownership in the handler or producer. For purposes
of this section, a "person" or "persons" includes the spouse, or
other persons of lineal consanguinity of the first or second degree
or collateral consanguinity to the fourth degree, and their spouses,
and includes an adopted child the same as a natural child and kindred
of the half blood equally with those of the whole blood of the owner
and ownerships by persons so related shall be considered single
ownership by one person. For purposes of this section, property
pledged or hypothecated in any manner to others shall be considered
"owned" if equitable ownership with management and control remain
with the producer-handler.
(c) Ownership as provided in this section shall have existed at
the time of the base period selected by the producer under Section
62707 and at all other times thereafter.
(d) Any such producer-distributor may, until August 6, 1969, do
either of the following:
(1) Join and operate wholly within the pool.
(2) Have its entire original production base and pool quota
determined during the base period it selected as a producer pursuant
to Section 62707, established as a part of the pooling plan, and,
nevertheless elect to operate entirely outside of the pool to the
extent authorized by this section.
(e) Any producer-handler who qualifies under this section and
elects to operate outside the pool, to the extent of the authority
granted, shall have the right to make deductions, as follows, from
its own class 1 sales, excluding sales to a handler, whether in bulk
or packaged, before being required to account to the pool:
(1) If it has not sold production base and pool quota subsequent
to February 9, 1977, it may deduct its original quota, and quota
purchased prior to March 1, 1995, plus a daily deduction of 150
pounds of milk fat and 375 pounds of solids not fat.
(2) If it has sold production base and pool quota subsequent to
February 9, 1977, it may only deduct its original pool quota, and
quota purchased prior to March 1, 1995.
(f) The deductions from class 1 sales authorized pursuant to this
section may be made irrespective of the fact that the average class 1
usage in the pool for that month may be less than 100 percent of the
pool quota in that pool.
(g) Any production subject to this section from the
producer-handler selecting this option shall not have the right to
participate in the quota pool, irrespective of the fact that the
producer-handler did not sell all of the quota as class 1, and will
participate in either the base pool or the overbase pool depending
upon whether the total production base of the producer is sufficient
to cover the milk delivered in excess of the class 1 usage exempted
hereunder, otherwise the production in excess of the exempt
producer-handler's own class 1 sales, as defined in this section,
shall be accounted for as overbase milk.
(h) The fact that a producer-handler qualifies as to one of its
milk production operations under this section does not prevent it
from operating on an entirely separate nonqualifying basis (and,
therefore, subject to pooling) at other milk production facilities,
and with other nonqualifying persons at these other milk production
facilities. A producer-handler can neither buy nor sell pool quota
and transfer therewith the option granted under this section, but
this shall not prevent him or her from purchasing or selling pool
quota or production base as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(i) If at any time ownership, as defined in this section, ceases,
the producer-handler shall no longer be eligible for the options in
this section, shall account to the pool as a separate handler, and
shall be entitled to reentry into producer participation in the pool
on the same basis as a producer-handler may under the last paragraph
of Section 62708.