Farming

The opportunity

Plan Bee offers a service that will greatly optimise crop management.

  • Bees make a vital contribution to the health of our eco-system by pollinating 80% of the UK’s agricultural crops.
  • Without them, the agricultural industry would diminish.
  • This isn’t a highly unlikely possibility. Bees are in serious decline. According to a Scottish government White Paper, there has been a 54% drop in honey bee colonies in the last 20 years, with elsewhere in the UK experiencing worse drops still.
  • In the last year, the number of UK bee colonies has depleted by another third, resulting in large-scale losses to agricultural productivity.
  • The number of bee farmers has dropped by a massive 65%.

Did you know…

Bee hives can increase oilseed rape yields by up to 25%, enabling growers to consistently produce yields of seven tonnes per hectare.

Evidence shows that efficient pollination can improve canopy structure for crop management by evening pod set.

More efficient pollination will enable farmers to develop environmental land management systems and policy measures to optimize their contribution to the overall business.

Benefits

An experiment carried out at Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden, Hertfordshire fund that broad bean plants pollinated by bees produced more seeds per pod, more seeds per plant, heavier seeds and a greater weight of seeds per plant than plants not pollinated by bees.

They also had more mature pods at the first harvest.

There was a 71.7% increase in seed yield with bees. The flowering season without bees was extended and the absolute flower abortion rate was higher in the absence of honeybees than with their presence.

If you are interested in Plan Bee for your farm, contact us.