USDA offering $3 million to Midwestern farmers to help save honeybee population

The U.S. government is opening its pocketbook to help save the honeybee population. Dairy farmers and ranchers in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota can qualify for about $3 million from the Department of Agriculture "to reseed pastures with alfalfa, clover and other plants appealing to both bees and livestock," M.L. Johnson reports for The Associated Press. "Farmers also can get help building fences, installing water tanks and making other changes that better enable them to move their animals from pasture to pasture so the vegetation doesn’t become worn down. The goal is to provide higher quality food for insects and animals." (AP photo by Lance Cheung)

"Commercial honeybees pollinate an estimated $15 billion worth of produce each year," Johnson writes. But their population has been in decline in recent years because of a a disorder that has wiped out around 50 percent of hives and a new virus that could be just as deadly. "The USDA hopes to stem those losses by providing more areas for bees to build up food stores and strength for winter."

The five states were chosen because 65 percent of the nation's estimated 30,000 commercial beekeepers "bring hives to the Upper Midwest in the summer for bees to gather nectar and pollen for food then truck them in the spring to California and other states to pollinate everything from almonds to apples to avocadoes," Johnson writes. "Corn, soybean and other farmers can qualify for money to plant cover crops, which typically go in after the regular harvest and help improve soil health or to grow bee-friendly forage in borders and on the edges of fields." (Read more)