BBKA Forum

According to Farmers Weekly, 21st December, the government has taken a significant step towards banning neonicitinoid pesticides completely. They have been granted emergency authorisation for the past 4 years in some instances to address challenges in sugar beet production although it looks like this will end. Farmers are reported to have said that without viable alternatives, the ban could devastate crop yields and livlihoods.

I am aware that beekeepers have not reported problems with bees on neonic treated OSR in the past and honeybee colonies do well on it.

The whole thing is a mess and I for one would not like to have to pick a side having interest in both camps.
Without some form of control the malady will destroy crops and bankrupt farms

Sugar prices will rise and hit the very beekeepers who themselves campaigned for the ban.

But with the current nictinoid situation there is risk to pollinators other than honeybees that is being conveniently sidelined .
No one cares.
Someday soon it will be too late to start caring.

However honey yields will also be hit if crops like beet fail.
More honey will be cheaply imported to compensate pushing UK prices down.

Yet another view -admittedly with a vast amount of cash behind it,the covid vaccine took just a couple of months to be created.
The sugar industry have had at least four years on emergency measures with the beet problems so not having developed a viable alternative solution is perhaps beginning to approach complacency.

Bees dont feed on beet.

and, under the (now old) exemption, farmers were not allowed to plant flowering crops, which pollinators might use, on ground where the neonics had been used (I forget for how long afterwards), so potentially a double whammy for pollinators - although done to limit the impact of neonics, given their persistence in soil.

I looked it up. Neonics can persist in the soil and also harm the bugs that live in the soil too.

And so can the alternative pesticides.

RJC wrote: ↑

27 Jan 2025, 16:27

and, under the (now old) exemption, farmers were not allowed to plant flowering crops, which pollinators might use, on ground where the neonics had been used (I forget for how long afterwards), so potentially a double whammy for pollinators - although done to limit the impact of neonics, given their persistence in soil.

In my local area OSR this winter is almost none existent. Due to the massive losses of crop last year because of the never ending rain and the ban on neonics the farmers are just growing wheat and barley. It makes you wonder if the loss of OSR forage is more detrimental for the pollinating insects than the impact of the insecticides

They'll need a break crop between the cereals; instead of OSR round here it seems to be field beans, or even Govt funded pollinator mixes.

RJC wrote: ↑

05 Mar 2025, 15:31

They'll need a break crop between the cereals; instead of OSR round here it seems to be field beans, or even Govt funded pollinator mixes.

The break crop is solar panels
Some huge farms being covered. The farmer said he only has to plant once, no other work req, earns more per acre and the crop lasts 40 years.

I hope farmer can plant something under the panels.