Farming and Bees

While contemplating my honeybees this morning, I could not help but worry about them and what would happen to them with all the corn and soybean planting happening around me. Farming and bees do not fit as well together these days as they used to. My two package bee queens have finally started laying eggs (they had me worried) and the nurse bees are now actively feeding larvae. The nuc I just picked up and installed the other day is looking fine,  but all around me are fields of soybeans and corn that make me nervous. I know they spray Round Up right before, or even as they plant, to kill the wintered over weeds. Some of the weeds are in bloom and the bees could be on them and be sprayed as well. They will spray Round Up (glyphosate) again later when weeds start getting taller than the crop.  I got to thinking about neo-nicotinoids and whether or not the seed the local farmer uses is treated with it. He said he doesn’t usually spray insecticides, but if it is on the seeds, it does not count as spraying. It doesn’t even count as an insecticide application when studies are done, which is a technicality that needs to be fixed. I figured I would go to the feed store and ask them what kind of seed I could get to plant fields of corn and soybeans, and see what they recommended.

The Feed Store

So, I made a run into town for feed, gas and groceries. I made a list of what I needed at Southern States-

1.) Information and prices on Corn and Soybean seeds

2.) 10 more 6 foot metal T-posts to repair the fence in the back paddock

3.) Two bags of chicken feed, one bag of horse feed, and some birdseed as a treat for the bitties

I usually buy my feed from Southern States because their feed is a better quality than Tractor Supply, and is not crawling with insects. The Feed Bin over near Boonesboro has even better feed, really fresh, but she can be grumpy so I tend to avoid it.

I loaded up two gas cans to be filled at the Liberty station in Charlestown, where they sell gas without ethanol because, according to my repairman, using the normal gas with ethanol is why I have had such issues with my chainsaw, weed eater and lawnmower.  I also loaded up the propane tank for the grill, to be filled at the Tractor Supply store, where it is the cheapest.

As I was driving down Trough Road I saw a shiny blue, very large, tractor, with a spray rig all folded up, coming my direction, so I pulled off to the side for him to get by. He needed to turn to the field right where I had pulled off, it turned out, so I squeezed by him as he moved carefully around me. We waved at each other and went on. Then I thought,

“That was a missed opportunity to talk to a guy who knows what he’s doing.”

So I turned back around to see if maybe I could catch him outside of the tractor cab while he was setting up. Nope. He was doing all the setup and unfolding and everything from inside the cab, all hydraulically operated with switches. Darn. So I headed back towards town again. I didn’t want to get in the guys way, especially after all the wet weather we have had limiting the farm work lately.

When I got to the Sothern States it was a madhouse. It was bad enough that it was Saturday morning, but it was also the first morning without rain for two weeks. The whole back lot was covered with seed chutes loading trucks and trailers. All the seed I saw dropping into the trucks looked treated to me, with that pink fungicide color. In this weather, the seed would probably rot without it. I have had to replant my peas that weren’t treated, with all this wet weather.  Of course, my peas only take up about 15 feet of row, not like it is a major loss.  Inside, there were only some folks manning the registers, nobody from the offices was available. I went back there and found a couple of brochures on soybean varieties and management methods for wheat and corn, but I did not see a price list. Apparently, farmers work directly with someone in the office, to determine what their needs are, depending on crop history, the current weather situation, and the expected disease issues each season. All of them were busy elsewhere, so I brought the brochures home to read them.

Out of 30 varieties of soybeans available at Sothern States, only 2 were listed as conventional, which I think means, not genetically modified to allow for herbicide resistance. On this list 22 were engineered to be Round Up resistant and 6 were engineered for an alternate herbicide called Liberty Link. There are many different companies producing glyphosate herbicides and many other brands of seeds. The main thing is that conventional farmers choose their seeds and treatments according to cost and availability, and what they know will work for them. It is not going to be easy to change any of that and you can’t blame them when their choices are so limited. I read earlier today that sometimes there is even a money back guarantee if you buy the newest products they are pushing, with all the bells and whistles, and you get nothing if you buy the old conventional standbys.

After reading the brochures, it looks like Southern States custom mixes seed and adds whatever seed treatments you ask for. Acceleron is one of the treatments they list, which has an imadacloprid (neonicotinoid) systemic insecticide as one of its ingredients, which is supposed to limit insects only during early growth stages, or about 30 days.  There are fungicides in this product as well. The issue with bees is that during planting, the insecticide can become airborne in dust and coat any bees flying nearby. They carry it back to the hive and it gets mixed in with their pollen, wax and honey stores and contaminates the entire hive and the larvae get it fed to them.  Neonicotinoids are currently being researched for being a possible cause of colony collapse disorder because it may cause bees to become disoriented. It may also cause them to change their behavior so that they become precocious foragers, limiting their time as nurse bees. These growth timing changes can affect the whole colony’s life cycle. Maybe, if this insecticide is really needed (and it may not be) it could be planted as a wet mix to at least alleviate the drift concern.

I cannot imagine being a farmer these days. Just reading the pesticide information does me in, let alone the attributes of various seeds and their genetic changes.  Farmers have to be knowledgeable about so many different realms of plant science, have weather and luck on their side, and then be ready to put in really long hours to get their planting and harvesting done, during the right window of opportunity. There are no guarantees and way too many variables. You have to be an eternally optimistic person to pull it off. I have enough trouble with my chickens, gardens, horse and bees. I hope we can all find a way to save the bees, without making farming any more difficult.