Pastures are no longer simply a place to raise and feed livestock. Well-managed pastures benefit air and water quality, conserve and improve soils, and maintain wildlife populations.

Pasture vegetation and land covered with growing plants removes air contaminants, decreases atmospheric CO2, produces oxygen, controls erosion, cleans and conserves water. But that is not all. Pastures house soil microbes that digest tons of matter, turning this matter into useable products, and provide wildlife with crucial habitat. Just imagine how many insects are present in our pastures that wouldn’t be there without the vegetation.

We don’t pay much attention to them, but insects have a huge impact on our lives.

Although many vital crops (corn, rice, wheat) are wind-pollinated, pollinators are essential for the majority of our fruit, nut, and vegetable production. 

Scientists say that the more than 4,000 species of bees in the United States are responsible for every third bite of food you and I consume. The contributions of honey bees are even more staggering.

The honey bee is credited with approximately 85 percent of the pollinating activity necessary to supply about one-quarter to one-third of the nation’s food supply. Honey bees enable the production of at least 90 commercially grown crops in North America.

More than 50 major crops in the United States depend on honey bees for pollination or produce more abundantly when honey bees are plentiful.

Some crops, like almonds, are almost exclusively pollinated by honey bees. Many crops rely on them for more than 90 percent of their pollination.

Honey bees contribute $15 billion to our economy in agricultural products. 

The number of managed U.S. honey bee colonies dropped from 6 million colonies in 1947 to 4 million in 1970, 3 million in 1990, and just 2.6 million today. Many factors attribute to this concerning decline – disease, pesticide use, insufficient nutrition, and habitat destruction.

We don’t spend much time thinking about how dependent we are on pollinators for the food we produce and eat. Nor do we consider the effect we have on them and their habitat unless, of course, our income is directly tied to their work. 

The good news is that managing our pastures well is beneficial for the health of our soils and our livestock, it is also helpful for pollinators. A diversified pasture including grasses, legumes, and native plants increases the nutrition content of forages for both livestock and pollinators.

A few tweaks to pasture management techniques can keep our pastures buzzing.

The simple addition of flowering legumes will provide benefits for both livestock and bees, points out Sid Bosworth, Extension professor and agronomy specialist at the University of Vermont.

Why flowering legumes? It all comes down to nutrition. “Flowering legumes are high in crude protein and contain needed minerals for livestock while also serving as a consistent nectar source,” Bosworth said. He recommended overseeding pastures periodically with legumes, maintaining adequate soil fertility and pH, and rotating pastures to avoid overgrazing to sustain a nice mix of pastures forages.

Pasture that contains at least 30 percent legumes are a win-win-win situation for pollinators, livestock and soil. “There are many forage legumes used in pastures. Almost all of them can be attractive to bees. However, varieties and or cultivars can vary quite a bit in their abundance and period of flower production,” Bosworth said.

He recommends researching the varieties of white clover, red clover, alsike clover and birdsfoot trefoil that do well in your area and produce blooms throughout the season. Bosworth added, “These flowering legumes provide nectar and pollen for pollinators, nutritious forage for livestock and benefit soils by fixing of atmospheric nitrogen.”

Maintaining good soil fertility and ensuring residual vegetative cover with rotational grazing encourages the entire ecosystem’s health, racking up even more wins.

Avoiding overgrazing; leaving adequate pasture residue leads to healthier plants, soils, water and stock. Overgrazing “weakens plants, reduces pasture productivity, and reduces flower and nectar production,” Bosworth said.

“Resting pastures allows flower maturity and adequate nectar production, increased pasture resiliency, and decreased impact from environmental pressures due to extreme weather conditions. In addition, a flexible rest period influenced by the time of year and weather conditions allow adequate regrowth of the root system and the vegetation,” Bosworth noted.

With a rotational grazing system, a steady nutritious food source for both livestock and bees is maintained by pastures being in different stages of regrowth. “Blooms are used to indicate rotation decisions that include pollinator health and habitat. However, forage quality declines as plants mature,” Bosworth said. Waiting too long to allow grazing will reduce the nutrition available to stock, but a balance is possible.

“Overall, good grazing management for livestock is compatible with good grazing for pollinators,” Bosworth said. Our diverse food supply is dependent on the health of pollinators.

For more information concerning bees and other pollinators, contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Xerces Society www.xerces.org and Project Apism at https://www.projectapism.org/.