Best Management Practices to Protect Honey Bees and other Pollinators in Soybean Fields

Description

This guide presents best management practices for conserving and promoting the health of pollinators, particularly managed honey bees, in conjunction with soybean production. The recommendations attempt to identify potentially negative impacts of soybean agricultural practices on bees at each stage of soybean production and suggest steps to mitigate these impacts. These practices should be treated as recommendations that complement pesticide label instructions. The label is the law, and it is a violation to apply pesticides contrary to label instructions and warnings. However, voluntary adoption of BMPs may mitigate harmful effects to managed honey bees. Not all recommendations may be possible in all farming operations, but their adoption could be viewed as a roadmap for those interested in voluntarily improving pollinator health. Many of these recommendations involve strategies that have other benefits (e.g., reduced tillage, and conservation of natural enemies), so the potential improvements for pollinators may ‘tip the scale’ for some producers in deciding to implement these practices.