USU bee lab crucial to agricultural industry
The Pollinating Insects Laboratory, or “bee lab,” on campus is one of three Agriculture Research Service (ARS) labs located at USU. They are each looking to solve agricultural problems, resulting in improved agricultural yields. Common sense economics suggest this means more dollars in the pockets of producers and less dollars spent by consumers to purchase agricultural products.
Dr. Rosalind James, research leader for the bee lab, said most, if not all, ARS labs across the country are located on or near university campuses. James said the collaborative relationship is mutually beneficial to the ARS lab and the university because each can use the others’ research to build on.
According to ARS, it is the in-house research arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Poisonous Plant Lab and the Forest and Range Lab are the additional ARS facilities housed at USU. Aside from the economic impacts of research, ARS inquiries “ensure high-quality, safe food, assess the nutritional needs of Americans and enhance the natural resource base and the environment.”
This bee lab is one of five across the country, and the only one to research bees other than the honey bee. James said there is a common misconception that all bees make honey and live in hives. In fact, there is only one species of honey bee in the United States; the remaining 3,000 plus species of bees that live on this continent are solitary bees and don’t produce honey. Their pollinating skills are even more important than the honey-making ability. Without the dutiful attention that pollinators pay to flowers, plants could not produce fruit or reproduce.
Dr. Theresa Pitts-Singer is one of five research entomologists and biologists at the Logan bee lab. She said her focus is “improving the commercial-scale use and management of the alfalfa leaf-cutting bee, a pollinator of alfalfa, canola, and other crops.
“I also work on improving the management of the blue orchard bee, which has recently gained attention due to a shortage of honey bees for fruit pollination,” she said.
Pitts-Singer said two main industries that utilize their research are the almond industry and alfalfa seed producers.
According to the Almond Board of California, almonds are the top agricultural export of the United States, totaling over $1.8 billion in 2008. The next highest export, wine, brings only half as much to the economy at $963 million.
Without the effects of pollinators there would be no almonds, which would result in a gaping hole in the economy. The decrease in honey bees scared almond industry insiders until bee lab research proved Osmia lignaria, or Orchard Mason Bee, to be an effective pollinator of almond blossoms.
James said the alfalfa seed growing industry really didn’t exist in the west before the 1960s. The discoveries generated by the lab back then resulted in the introduction of the alfalfa leaf-cutter bee, which didn’t naturally exist in the region before.
“Once it was discovered that Megachile rotundata, alfalfa leafcutter bee, was a reliable pollinator of hay crops, it shifted the whole (seed) production industry from the eastern states to the western states,” James said.
In Box Elder County, just west of the Salt Creek where Tremonton dips into Bothwell, Eli Anderson’s alfalfa seed production operation looks like any typical farm. As Anderson shows the insides of his outbuildings, a major difference between a seed grower and a plant grower is revealed-bees.
A typical alfalfa grower plants seed and nurtures the resulting plants, with particular attention to making the plants as large as possible, hence producing the most amount of alfalfa hay. Anderson said an alfalfa seed grower’s particular attention is on the pollination of the alfalfa’s flowers, which results in the maximum amount of seeds produced. A seed grower applies all of the same ingredients that hay growers use, water, fertilizer – but also bees, specifically alfalfa leaf-cutter bees.
So, alfalfa seed producers have to know how to raise, maintain, and transport bees, which is a detailed and precise science in itself. Anderson said he didn’t know anything about bees when he got into the seed producing business four years ago.
“The bee lab is a huge asset in learning what we can do to maximize our efforts,” Anderson said.
One long-term issue that the industry needs help with is managing bees to “return” or to reproduce at a rate that maintains or increases their numbers. Anderson said he gets some return, but never achieves 100 percent or better, so he purchases bees to make up the difference. American seed growers must buy bees from Canada, where their returns can reach 300 percent.
Anderson said four years ago he could buy a gallon of bees for $20-$25. Today’s price is $100 per gallon. For optimum yields, a grower “applies” five gallons, or 50,000 bees per acre.
“With the other expenses, getting a field to produce a crop of seed can cost over $800 per acre. You can see that a big portion of that cost has to do with the bees,” Anderson said.
Canadian bee producers can hold American seed growers over the barrel (of bees) because they are currently the only source. Again, as basic economic law says, less competition equals higher prices. Pitts-Singer and others are looking to answer why Canada has better success with their return rate of bees, in hopes of creating solutions.
The bee lab helps with short-term answers as well. Anderson sold bees to a farmer in Arizona who placed them on one of his fields. When the farmer later checked he couldn’t find evidence of those bees on his property and there was an obvious question as to whether those bees were defective. The bee lab examined the trays and concluded that the bees were healthy and they must have found a more appealing area and migrated, thus protecting Anderson’s reputation and liability as a bee provider.
Anderson has much to deal with to ensure the viability of his operation and the Pollinating Insects Lab’s research is crucial to help him maintain a positive bottom line, though he and his son are working on solutions themselves.
– tam.r@aggiemail.usu.edu