Slow start to field work; cheap wild bee nurseries

Washington Ag March 31, 2009 Wet conditions have field work running behind in both western and eastern Washington this spring. The Washington Crop Weather report from the Agricultural Statistics Service says spring seeding around the region has been kept to a minimum. Three percent of the state's barley crop had been planted to start this week. The five year average for now is 21 percent. One percent of the potato crop is in the ground which is right on the five year average. Processing green pea seeding is three percent complete slightly behind average. Crop insurance adjusters were out in Adams county assessing the effects of dry winter wheat seeding conditions last fall and the frigid cold of early December. Many winter wheat stands were determined to be in need of reseeding or interseeding. Farmers who need crops pollinated by bees can get help from wild bees by building shelters for them that cost as little as five dollars. USDA's Agricultural Research Service scientist James Cane says wild bee nurseries can be made out of corrugated plastic bins, milk cartons and nesting material like straw. Cane: "Talking with growers and with growers emphasizing to me that we needed something affordable, practical, effective, durable, and made of off the shelf items, that is what drove me to produce this shelter." Cane has tested his wild bee shelters in western states and they have been shown to be durable in weather conditions such as wind and rain. He says each shelter can house enough bees to pollinate a half acre to an acre of fruit. Wild pollinators are needed because of the decline in the population of the European honey bee. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.