Hi Bob and Everyone,

Bob wrote in part:
"Sadly I agree with Dr. Shilling (ABF convention 2002) that protectionism
will not work in the long run . Increasing productivity by 17 times seems
out of reach also. Dr. Shilling used the example that the U.S. farmer is 17
times as productive now while over the same time period the U.S. beekeeper
still has the same honey production average per hive (in some states less)
as a 100 years ago."

Yes Dr Schilling's talk gives one reason to do some serious thinking.  Much of the increase in productivity in agriculture is best expressed in terms of yield per acre.  In beekeeping this would be yield per colony not total production of the outfit.  The question is how can we increase yield per colony without increasing costs?  Some difficult issues to struggle with.  In agriculture it is the so called green revolution that continues to push yield per acre upward despite all predictions to the contrary.  There are conflicting currents in beekeeping with pollination rental you are paid so much per colony while for honey production increased management of colonies usually leads to increased production per colony.  So for pollination you need to maximize the number of productive colonies in the outfit but for honey production you may well be better off running fewer colonies with more intensive management.  Most of the colony maintenance costs are on a per colony basis ( mite treatments, feed, etc. ) so in spite of the conflicting interests between pollination and honey production most large commercial outfits that depend on both are pulled in two different directions at once.

We do need to come up with ways to both increase per colony productivity ( in terms of honey production etc ) and reduce the labor involved in harvesting and managing those colonies.  From my view one of the critical issues is how can we maintain healthy disease free colonies with less labor ( inspections of the brood )?  How can we more efficiently monitor colonies for disease and deal with disease and pest problems early enough to mitigate their impact on production per colony?

FWIW

blane



******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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