Reseach on the Impact of the Ban on Bee-Harming Pesticides and What is Next in Farming.

Hi all, I am a student at Imperial University London trying to understand how the banning of bee-harming pesticide has affected your farm and trying to come up with the next generation of the drone-based precision pest control system. It would be amazing if I could have a chat with you about this problem and try to include your input into the project! Please let me know if you are interested in taking part in the project. Meanwhile here is a quick 5 mins survey that you can answer!

 
It doesn't sound like you have got your head around the scientific rigour element that will serve you well in your scientific career when you already call them "bee-harming pesticides".
Hi there,

That is an excellent suggestion! I will keep that in mind. I am trying right now to find a new way for farmers to work around the policies potentially and it would be great if you can share more opinions with me on the very subject!
 

Luke Cropwalker

Member
Arable Farmer
I have attempted to fill in your survey but the questions are obviously biased towards the fallacy that all neonic applications are harmful to bees. If you would like to rewrite the survey and remove your preconceived prejudice then it might be better received.
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I can just picture the sky full with drones reminiscent of the Battle of Britain as they fire lasers at flea beetles.

I can’t think of any other way a drone can help osr establishment. :)

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I have attempted to fill in your survey but the questions are obviously biased towards the fallacy that all neonic applications are harmful to bees. If you would like to rewrite the survey and remove your preconceived prejudice then it might be better received.
I am deeply sorry it made you feel like that! It is really not my intention to do that and I am just trying to make a new system that might work under the current circumstances! Please let me know which question feels biased and I will try to fix it!
 
I can just picture the sky full with drones reminiscent of the Battle of Britain as they fire lasers at flea beetles.

I can’t think of any other way a drone can help osr establishment. :)

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Haha that would be very funny indeed! I am trying to make precision pesticide spraying at an early stage of pest outbreak possible, so there are no star wars involved in this project!
If you are interested in hearing more about the project, please send an email to [email protected]
 
The bee farmer who has bees on my farm has had to move bees to osr first time in living memory
he has also had to feed bees as the hive were starting to starve

back in march the amount of honey produced from the pussy willow was the best he has ever had

banning neonicotinoid seed dressing has not saved a single honey bee in his view

imho the bumble bees have had a very difficult time round here with no rape on my farm so no flowering plants to feed on in April a few hedgerows will not feed them clover and nectar mixes have not flowered
befor neonicatinoid ban we would have 25% of the farm in osr all available for nector and no insecticide sprayed in it
just a few mg of seed dressing buried with the seed in august 7 months before it flowers
 
The bee farmer who has bees on my farm has had to move bees to osr first time in living memory
he has also had to feed bees as the hive were starting to starve

back in march the amount of honey produced from the pussy willow was the best he has ever had

banning neonicotinoid seed dressing has not saved a single honey bee in his view

imho the bumble bees have had a very difficult time round here with no rape on my farm so no flowering plants to feed on in April a few hedgerows will not feed them clover and nectar mixes have not flowered
befor neonicatinoid ban we would have 25% of the farm in osr all available for nector and no insecticide sprayed in it
just a few mg of seed dressing buried with the seed in august 7 months before it flowers
That is an incredible insight! I would love to discuss this topic further with you! It has certainly been very irrational for the government to suddenly restrict important chemicals for farmers without alternatives. Please email [email protected] if you wish to discuss further on the topic!
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
Haha that would be very funny indeed! I am trying to make precision pesticide spraying at an early stage of pest outbreak possible, so there are no star wars involved in this project!
If you are interested in hearing more about the project, please send an email to [email protected]

I tend to embrace as much technology as i can but I fail to see what improvement a drone could do, especially as we currently dont have any chemicals that can be used for flea beetle the ones that work are not available to us and there is resistance to the rest. Even if there were the beetles migrate, they move over the field so any chemical control has to be on the plant waiting for the insect to eat it. We can all do this cheaply with current technology, I am quite prepared to be told a done system can save the crop but in a field scale situation I find it difficult to see anything being both effective and affordable.

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Hi all, I am a student at Imperial University London trying to understand how the banning of bee-harming pesticide has affected your farm and trying to come up with the next generation of the drone-based precision pest control system. It would be amazing if I could have a chat with you about this problem and try to include your input into the project! Please let me know if you are interested in taking part in the project. Meanwhile here is a quick 5 mins survey that you can answer!



You would do well to go and research how the removal/withdrawal of key agrochemicals has drastically impacted the production of flowering crops like oilseed rape, beans, peas and linseed. Then go and figure out how the loss of thousands of acres of these crops has done bees, both wild and domesticated, a hugely bad turn in recent years.

One of the highlights of growing OSR on the estate I worked on was seeing the bee keepers bring their hives during the flowering season and watching bees work the crop. You won't see much OSR around these days, and even fewer beans as well.
 
I tend to embrace as much technology as i can but I fail to see what improvement a drone could do, especially as we currently dont have any chemicals that can be used for flea beetle the ones that work are not available to us and there is resistance to the rest. Even if there were the beetles migrate, they move over the field so any chemical control has to be on the plant waiting for the insect to eat it. We can all do this cheaply with current technology, I am quite prepared to be told a done system can save the crop but in a field scale situation I find it difficult to see anything being both effective and affordable.

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That's fascinating to know! And I love a big challenge!

Thank you for bringing up the problem about the flea beetles. It is exactly like what you said that the current system waits until the beetles to migrate, and that's why the beetles are so damn annoying! Yet an active monitoring system and fast responding drones have the potential to kill them early on! Of course, the technical details are still very much in the working process, and I would love to talk to you more on the subject in the future!
 
The key point is that farmers will not grow a crop that they perceive as risky. The use of neonics as seed dressings kept the flea beetle at bay for years and made it possible to manage the risk one was exposed to when growing the crop. Today it is very much pot luck and people cannot afford to plant OSR at great expense and risk not having a worthwhile crop at the end of it.
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I have 55ac of osr in the ground, a third of what I used to grow. It has the potential to be one of the best crops I’ve ever grown. The only reason is luck, there was rain forcast so I did a late night drilling it, the next morning half an inch of rain.

With average prices I can’t afford to spend lots on technology, I’m better off waiting for rain and if it doesn’t come plant something else.

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The key point is that farmers will not grow a crop that they perceive as risky. The use of neonics as seed dressings kept the flea beetle at bay for years and made it possible to manage the risk one was exposed to when growing the crop. Today it is very much pot luck and people cannot afford to plant OSR at great expense and risk not having a worthwhile crop at the end of it.
Thank you for the insight! It might be interesting to see how monitoring where the insects and local bees are and only spraying pesticide in small areas while avoiding the bees could fit with the regulation!
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
That's fascinating to know! And I love a big challenge!

Thank you for bringing up the problem about the flea beetles. It is exactly like what you said that the current system waits until the beetles to migrate, and that's why the beetles are so damn annoying! Yet an active monitoring system and fast responding drones have the potential to kill them early on! Of course, the technical details are still very much in the working process, and I would love to talk to you more on the subject in the future!
beetles are very small and very numerous. With the greatest will in the world you are not going to take them down one by one with a drone....
 
I have 55ac of osr in the ground, a third of what I used to grow. It has the potential to be one of the best crops I’ve ever grown. The only reason is luck, there was rain forcast so I did a late night drilling it, the next morning half an inch of rain.

With average prices I can’t afford to spend lots on technology, I’m better off waiting for rain and if it doesn’t come plant something else.

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Sounds exciting! Automatic drones do have the potential to lowering labour cost. Countries facing a decline in population in agriculture has already adapted drones for pest control!
 
beetles are very small and very numerous. With the greatest will in the world you are not going to take them down one by one with a drone....
Thank you for your feedback! That might be the beauty of drones is that they could be quite a nice fit for the job of taking things down precisely. Many challenges still ahead, but the potentials are looking interesting!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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