EAST LANSING, Mich. – An annual survey used to update the cost of pollination is being mailed to about 16,000 crop producers nationwide.

The survey is asking growers of fruits and vegetables about whether they used honeybees from pollinators this year along with the fees they paid for their services.

Producers are also asked to list any other expenses related to giving a boost to the pollination that occurs from honeybees in nature.

Marlo D. Johnson, Great Lakes Region director of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), said the purpose of the annual survey is to accurately gauge the existing health of the country’s pollination industry.

“Honeybees are important pollinators of crops ranging from apples to vegetables,” she said.

Another reason for the survey is to update the average cost per acre of using pollinators to help producers decide whether it’s financially worth it for them to use the potentially yield increasing service on their crops.

Producers are asking to respond `securely online at agcounts.usda.gov, by mail or fax machine by Nov. 12. 

Survey recipients not responding may be contacted by a NASS representative to arrange an interview to complete the survey. According to USDA, all information reported by producers will be kept confidential, as required by federal law.

Information obtained from the survey will be published Dec. 13 on the NASS website at nass.usda.gov and in the NASS Quick Stats searchable database at www.quickstats.nass.usda.gov.

Jack Hiegel, a survey statistician with the Great Lakes office, said another purpose of the survey is to help people decide whether to become pollinators from a business standpoint.

The percentage of crop producers using pollinators is an indicator on whether enough demand exists to break into the industry and be successful. 

“We’ve heard from stakeholders this is information they find useful, so we’ve tried to provide it through the survey,” he said.

Hiegel said more than 750 surveys will go out in Michigan. About 450 producers in Ohio and around 250 growers in Indiana will receive the survey, he said.

The average cost of pollination gathered by the survey is posted by region and displayed for each crop ranging from apples to blueberries and watermelon in fruit along with vegetables such as pumpkins, squash and cucumbers.

Cost information is also broken down by acre and for every colony of honeybees used in the pollination.

The 17 states in Region 1 include Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio, along with areas further east and west like Pennsylvania, New York and Kansas.

There are 10 states in Region 2: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

In Region 1, the total cost of pollination in 2023 for all crops listed in the survey was $19.8 million, a 10 percent drop from the previous year, according to the NASS/USDA website. The results show that was largely from the cost per colony of honeybees declining from $87.50 to $79.10.

According to the findings, the $3.5 million total amount spent on pollinating apples in Region 1 barely changed from the previous year while the $834,000 paid for pollinating cherries was down from $1.3 million in 2022.

Some of the decline in what cherry growers spent was from the cost per colony of honeybees falling from $78.90 to $66.70.

In contrast, it cost $81 per colony to pollinate apples last year or about $12 less than in 2022.

The statistics also revealed about 8,000 more acres in apples were pollinated in 2023 from the previous year to take advantage, perhaps, of the lower service cost.

In comparison, the figures show over $6.7 million was spent on pollination last year in Region 2 with just over 50 percent of those expenditures on blueberries.

The cost per colony for those blueberries dropped about $12 from 2022 to $66.40.

Another $1.6 million was spent in that region on pollinating watermelon with a per colony cost of $66.10 compared to $70.60 in 2022.

Anyone needing help with the survey is asked to contact NASS at 1-800-453-7501.