WILD POLLINATORS EARNING THEIR KEEP ON THE FARM
THIS ARTICLE WAS ORGINALLY POSTED ON AGCANADA.COM. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.
It’s crop-planning season and that means it’s a good time for making plans to create a wild pollinator habitat near your crops.
Having a strong pollinator population can offer a benefit to crops, said Mark Wonneck, an ecologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Calgary.
Bees are an important part of both alfalfa production and hybrid seed production in canola. And some studies have found commodity canola is also pollinated by bees. Pollination service has been used in canola production, haskap and saskatoon production. Even though alfalfa production is usually supported through the use of leafcutter bees, other bees pollinate alfalfa seed.
Some research has shown that healthy pollinator populations can boost yields of some crops.
“In the case of commodity canola, when you have more complete pollination, you will get more seeds produced,” said Wonneck.
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