Less Beekeepers in Alberta Later in 2020

It's almost a certainly that a percentage of Alberta beekeepers won't be in the business later this year. 

 

It's been an especially difficult year for beekeepers thanks to a number of factors including a long cold winter, that started earlier than usual and also the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Connie Phillips with the Alberta beekeepers commission says it's estimated that more than 50 thousand hives were lost over the winter.  Phillips says in a typical year, when springtime arrives, those beekeepers would order replacement bees from various parts of the world and they would be shipped by air.  But as the pandemic deepened and many international flights were cancelled, those shipments weren't possible.  She says for keepers that rely on temporary foreign workers to help with the hives in the springtime, the pandemic also meant many of those workers had to jump through additional hoops in order to get here.  By time some of them did, the bees had starved to death. 

 

Phillips says she's heard that at least 2 or 3 beekeeper operations in the province will go out of business this year.  But she also says beekeepers are resilient and if they can find a way to move forward, they will.  Alberta produces the most honey of any province in the country.

Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.