grainswest.com
3 Winfield Way, Winnipeg, MB R2R 1V8
Canadian
Association of
Agri-Retailers Participant in CFQAP
In Saskatchewan & Alberta call
1-800-491-8984
PH: 1-800-663-GROW
(4769)
Phone: (204) 786-5736
Fax: (204) 783-9740
Web:
Serving Farmers in Western Canada for 31 Years
100% Canadian Owned & Operated.
Call for the dealer nearest you.
Traditional
Fertilizer
PowerRich
Fertilizer
Traditional
Fertilizer
PowerRich
Fertilizer
... serving farmers since 1984
PowerRich fertilizer contains a broader spectrum of nutrients, required for normal
plant growth, than conventional chemical salt fertilizers. And, because PowerRich is
concentrated, you’ll have less fertilizer to handle, store and transport.
Also, the micronutrients used by PowerRich move both laterally and vertically
with soil moisture. They become equally distributed throughout the root zone. As
shown, root and plant development are superior with the PowerRich program.
Customer since 2009
Customers since 1996
Customer since 1996
Customer since 1997
Customers since 2009
Customers since 2008
Customers since 1984
YOUR CUSTOM FERTILIZER COMPANY
We Come to You. We Can Finance.
AND We Deliver!
Get to Know the
Power Rich Advantage
and
Save $$
cent. After pest control was developed and implemented
throughout Alberta in 2009, Alberta’s bee losses dropped
significantly, starting in 2011.
“In Alberta, we diagnosed the problem at early stages and
said, ‘That’s failure of varroa mite control,’” said Medhat Nasr,
Alberta’s provincial apiculturist and president of the Canadian
Association of Professional Apiculturists.
That’s not to say that pesticide use is never considered as a
potential cause in Albertan bee mortality cases. “We in Alberta
are not saying, ‘Ignore that part,’” Nasr said, adding that
monitoring pesticide use is always encouraged.
For Townsend, Alberta’s successful turnaround is proof that
Ontario beekeepers should be examining their own practices
as a potential cause. “When we as beekeepers out west
hear the response from the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association
saying ‘Well, we’re beekeepers, we know what we’re doing,
we have control over our diseases and pests,’ it just makes us
shake our heads because none of us have control over our
diseases and pests,” Townsend said.
Yet Bryans insists he has kept tight control of mites in his hives,
monitoring varroa levels and treating his hives in the spring and
fall as recommended by the province.
It doesn’t help that Ontario provincial apiculturists like Paul
Kozak admit there’s uncertainty about how beekeepers who
follow established mite-control guidelines can still see severe
losses. “We know that varroa mites there can be a serious issue,
but where we see that there’s fairly broad data to demonstrate
that they’re being controlled effectively, that sort of brings into
question whether it is varroa mites,” Kozak said.
“Definitely there are going to be individual beekeepers who
have fallen through the cracks or are still facing issues.”
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Neonic seed treatment has been defended as a more targeted
application of pesticides than foliar sprays, since neonics are
applied to a much smaller area and in a less intrusive way.
The reality is just the opposite, Gue said, because neonic
seed treatment is now applied to almost all corn and canola,
and the majority of soybeans. “It’s just become in many cases
common practice, without, in fact, any assessment of whether
or not there even is a pest threat present,” Gue said.
The problem is that farmers don’t know what pest problems
they’re going to be facing in the spring when they order seed
in the fall, Brock said. Rather than take the chance of losing
crops to pest insects, farmers choose to buy neonic-treated
seed as insurance. “We’re making seed decisions in October,
November and December for seed we’re going to plant
hopefully in April and May.”
To mitigate crop losses, farmers need predictive models for
what pests they’ll face in the spring, Brock said. But creating
those models takes years. Years the Ontario government did
not wait after beekeepers, environmental groups and voters
clamoured for action.
SLOW-ARRIVING SCIENCE
“There is an independent body here in this whole equation,
even if you disregard what CropLife says, [and] disregard what
others say,” said Petelle.
Petelle is referring to the PMRA,the federal agency
whose report started the Canadian debate in earnest and
is now conducting a re-evaluation of neonics and their
effects on pollinators. The PMRA is collaborating with the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California
Department of Pesticide Regulation. A preliminary report is
expected to come out at the end of 2015.
In Alberta, Townsend maintains that it’s important to know
that blame for bee losses can’t be placed solely on pesticide
use and farming practices. “It’s not going to go away anytime
soon, but somehow it has to be brought up to everybody
outside of the beekeeping industry that beekeepers themselves
have to improve what they’re doing,” Townsend said.
Meanwhile, Ontario surges ahead with its neonics-reduction
measures. Even after the measures are fully in place, it will likely
be several years before the full effects are known. And the
neonics debate in Ontario won’t resolve itself without an impact
on farmers, beekeepers and the agriculture industry.
“There’s going to be casualties on both sides,” Brock said.
