Ashburton Courier: December 12, 2019

Local news at www.starnews.co.nz Ashburton's The Courier, Thursday 12 December 2019, Page 45
Rural&Lifestyle
Alternative crop pollinator option
By Toni Williams
Drone flies are not aknown allergen,
they don’t sting so handlers need no
protective clothing and they can be
pollinating crops within weeks of a
low­cost setup.
They are anatural complement to
honey bees as acrop pollinators,
especially for open flower species.
And can be mass reared in the
field in simple systems seed growers
can construct in fixed trenches or
portable containers, as their larvae
feed on arange of moist vegetation
types and/or animal manure.
Plant and Food Research’s Brad
Howlett is excited by ongoing
research into their pollination
potential.
Speaking at the Foundation for
Arable Research’s (FAR) annual
arable research in action day, he said
when most people thought of
pollinators they thought of honey
bees, which were easily accessible for
farmers to use.
But although hybrid seed crops
were primarily pollinated by honey
bees, there was the potential for seed
production to be vulnerable if honey
bee hive numbers, and availability,
was reduced through disease or
parasite.
Blustery day at FAR
field day at Chertsey
The Foundation for Arable Research
(FAR) held its Arable Research In
Action (ARIA) field day last week at
the FAR Chertsey arable site on State
Highway 1,atChertsey, Mid Canterbury.
In blustery northwest winds, hundreds
offarmers and industry representatives
were on site to hear the
latest research information and view
demonstration plots, investigating
everything fromcultivars to cultivation.
The presentations on the day
covered issues considered critical to
cropping and its related primary
industries.
Twelve speakers from New Zealand
and abroad spoke including international
herbicide resistance expert
Mid Canterbury's Kai Tegels (left) checks out Drone Fly lavae
specimens during the Drone Flies and Pollination session at the
Foundation for Arable Research’s arable research in action day.
There were also some hybrid crops
which produced little nectar and
were not attractive to bees.
Dr Howlett said it was good to
have biodiversity in pollinators
Emeritus Professor Carol Mallory­
Smith from Oregon State University
(Herbicide Resistance­ aUSperspective)
and AgResearch’s Scott Hardwick
(Red Clover case bearer update), Plant
and Food Research’s Soonie Chng
(Ramularia update), FAR’s Diana
Mathers (The how and why of Quick N
testing), and Phil Rolston (Options for
improving glyphosate efficiency).
ARIA takes place on a13.5­hectare
property, just north of Chertsey, on a
mix of irrigated and non­irrigated land.
FAR has demonstrated at the site for
the past 16 years, offering along­term
showcase for some high­profile
research projects on multiple crops,
funded bygrower levies and external
grants.
because it can increase crop yield.
The reason was “honey bees like
sunny conditions and behave in a
certain way”.
Other insects operated in other
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systems such as bumble bees like
cooler cloudier conditions.
“So when you’ve got weather that
is highly changeable, you’ve got time
that honey bees aren’t active.”
He said the existing
recommendations around
pollination diversity were general or
broad but were often associated with
native plants and habitat but it still
didn’t guarantee colonisation of
those insects.
“The better option is if we can try
and develop pollinators.”
“The drone fly has really good
potential.
“It looks like ahoney bee…and
has beneficial characteristics.
“It can actually be more efficient
than honey bees.
He said drone files were
generalists and could be used to
pollinate arange of crops including
pak choi, radish, onion and hybrid
carrot.
“And they’re really common.
There’s agood chance you are going
to see adults on your crops anyway.”
Their lifecycle was basic and
substrates were commonly found in
effluent, cut grass, lawn clippings or
any substance kept moist and starting
to decay.
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They reared thousands of lavae.
Systems to mass­rear drone flies in
fields, next to crops were being
developed.
On site at ARIA there was afive
metre long, 50 cm deep and 60cm
wide trench dug into the ground and
layered with substrates to help
activate drone flies production.
Dr Howlett said asmaller, more
portable option using two containers
–dry material like saw dust on the
bottom for drone lies to pupate in)
and asubstance (like baleage,
effluent, or grass clippings) kept wet
in the top, smaller container ­could
made to allow moving the ‘system’ to
high need crop areas.
The drone flies were attracted to
the decaying material and can
produce hundreds of eggs for each
individual, which quickly produced
thousands of drone flies.
“You can go out in your field and
see if there are any problems. You
might not have pollinators in a
certain area and you can pick these
(systems) up and move them.”
He said the earlier the systems
were created the better with the
drone flies still producing pupae
three months after entering.
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