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Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:09:40 -0600 |
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Gordon Townsend, who headed the Apiculture Department at the University
of Guelph for a number of decades up to the early 80s talked about the
golden days of beekeeping before farmers started clipping hay fields
right at the beginning of bloom to get the highest forage nutritional
value. That practice probably had the highest negative impact on
beekeeping in North America than anything before mites. Occasionally
people see glimpses of those old days when fields are too wet for
haying at the "right time", or when drought years affect yields so much
that farmers let the fields go.
Even back then (in the 70s) highway departments had programs for
planting bee friendly flowers along right of ways. Since then the
shapes and forms of programs are even more involved. One practice that
has potential, if adopted more broadly, is the intense rotational
grazing now called "holistic range management". It was initially not
considered very scientific by academics, but is now more widely
accepted. Grazing animals are confined to small areas each day, they
clip the best and eventually the lower nutrition forage, and then are
moved. More importantly, the pastures are given a long recovery time
for plants to regrow and hopefully bloom before the next grazing
cycle. It is not for everyone or for every biome, but could expand
quite a bit particularly in arid climates.
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