Iowa Code
Chapter 579B - COMMODITY PRODUCTION CONTRACT LIEN
Section 579B.1 - Definitions.

579B.1 Definitions.
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. “Commodity” means livestock, raw milk, or a crop.
2. “Continuous arrival” means the arrival of livestock at a contract livestock facility on a monthly basis or more frequently as provided in a production contract.
3. “Contract crop field” means farmland where a crop is produced according to a production contract executed pursuant to section 579B.2 by a contract producer who owns or leases the farmland.
4. “Contract livestock facility” means an animal feeding operation as defined in section 459.102, in which livestock or raw milk is produced according to a production contract executed pursuant to section 579B.2 by a contract producer who owns or leases the animal feeding operation. “Contract livestock facility” includes a confinement feeding operation as defined in section 459.102, an open feedlot as defined in section 459A.102, or an area which is used for the raising of crops or other vegetation and upon which livestock is fed for slaughter or is allowed to graze or feed.
5. “Contract operation” means a contract livestock facility or contract crop field.
6. “Contract producer” means a person who owns or leases a contract operation and who produces a commodity under a production contract executed pursuant to section 579B.2.
7. “Contractor” means a person who owns a commodity at the time that the commodity is under the authority of the contract producer as provided in section 579B.3 pursuant to a production contract executed pursuant to section 579B.2.
8. a. “Crop” means a plant used for food, animal feed, fiber, or oil, if the plant is classified as a forage or cereal plant, including but not limited to alfalfa, barley, buckwheat, corn, flax, forage, millet, oats, popcorn, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers, wheat, and grasses used for forage or silage.
b. A “crop” does not include trees or nuts or fruit grown on trees; sod; shrubs; greenhouse plants; or plants or plant parts produced for precommercial, experimental, or research purposes.
9. “Farmland” means agricultural land suitable for use in farming as defined in section 9H.1.
10. “Lien” means a commodity production contract lien created in section 579B.3.
11. “Livestock” means beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, or swine.
12. “Personal representative” means a person who is authorized by a contract producer to act on behalf of the contract producer, including by executing an agreement, managing a contract operation, filing a financing statement perfecting a lien, and enforcing a lien as provided in this chapter.
13. “Processor” means a person engaged in the business of manufacturing goods from commodities, including by slaughtering or processing livestock, processing raw milk, or processing crops.
14. “Produce” means to do any of the following:
a. Provide feed or services relating to the care and feeding of livestock. If the livestock is dairy cattle, “produce” includes milking the dairy cattle and storing raw milk at the contract producer’s contract livestock facility.
b. Provide for planting, raising, harvesting, and storing a crop. “Produce” includes preparing the soil for planting and nurturing the crop by the application of fertilizers or soil conditioners as defined in section 200.3 or pesticides as defined in section 206.2.
15. “Production contract” means an oral or written agreement executed pursuant to section 579B.2 that provides for the production of a commodity by a contract producer.
99 Acts, ch 169, §14, 22, 24; 2001 Acts, ch 25, §6, 7; 2002 Acts, ch 1119, §94; 2007 Acts, ch 22, §100, 101