Ag labor worries discussed at roundtable 

“It’s unfortunately too late, but the writings on the wall for those of us who are still in this business.” 

One farmer grew blueberries in New Jersey. Another was a dairy farmer in Wisconsin. One was a produce grower in California, and one represented cattlemen in Kansas. They all had common thoughts. The future isn’t that bright for agriculture unless there’s changes in ag labor laws and the H-2A visa program. 

According to organizers, Grow It Here, is a new advocacy campaign focused on mounting ag labor shortages that jeopardize American farms, undercut competitiveness, and lead to higher food prices. The group hopes conversations will help highlight the need for ag labor reform and the importance of a robust workforce for American farms across the country.  

On the panel was Zach Rutledge, assistant professor and Extension economist, Michigan State University; Brandon Batten, Triple B Farms, Four Oaks, North Carolina; John Rosenow, Rosenholm Dairy, Waumandee, Wisconsin; Matt Teagarden, Kansas Livestock Association; Tracy Vinz, Olden Organic Farms, Ripon, Wisconsin; Lisa Tate, California Coffee Collective, Santa Paula, California, Linda Pryor, Hilltop Farm, Hendersonville, North Carolina; and Brandon Raso, Variety Farms, Hammonton, New Jersey. Kristi Boswell, former U.S. Department of Agriculture and White House Trump administration ag labor adviser, Counsel, Alston & Bird and Grow it Here adviser, moderated the panel. 

“For decades, the agriculture community has been working to reform policies to ensure farmers have access to workforce they need to plant and harvest crops, milk their cows and tend livestock, yet access to a legal and stable workforce remains one of the top issues facing farms across the country today,” Boswell said. “This is the biggest issue, typically across country and across commodities.” 

Boswell said shortages of domestic labor have worsened, and the cost of labor has increased, pushing many producers to decide if it’s worth it to continue their current operations or find a less labor-intensive crop. Can they even turn to the H-2A visa program or even continue to farm at all?  

“Many have turned to the H-2 agricultural visa program, which provides farm employers with temporary and seasonal access to foreign labor,” Boswell said. “The program has grown exponentially out of sheer necessity, but the program is incredibly bureaucratic and expensive, as is often said, you shouldn’t have to hire a lawyer to hire a farm worker.” 

The H-2A program is seasonal and can’t fill year-round needs. According to Boswell, farm labor challenges not only impact farmers, but also American consumers wanting locally grown American food.  

“We hope that by raising farmer voices, we can complement the ongoing advocacy of the agriculture community to educate the public and the policymakers about the challenges farmers are facing and the need for ag labor reform,” she said.  

Extension studies

Rutledge has been studying farm labor markets for about seven years and has identified a couple key points about farm labor scarcity and what that implies for United States producers. He said in this country, the farm workforce is “heavily comprised” of foreign labor. 

“According to the most recent data from the National Agricultural Worker survey, about seven in 10 of our crop farm workers are born in another country, and most of those foreign-born workers are from Mexico,” he said. “We also have a workforce that has a good share of workers that are not authorized to legally work here in the United States, and so that means that we rely upon a Mexican immigrant workforce, many of whom are not authorized to work here.” 

Because of his surveys, he understands the extent to which farmers are experiencing labor shortages. Many have been seeing shortages increase over time and in his most recent surveys, “about half of the farmers are experiencing some degree of labor shortage.” The average shortage is about 20% of the labor force. 

“We have about half of the farmers reporting that they can’t hire all the labor they need,” Rutledge said. 

He also said farm employees are getting harder to find and retain. 

“A growing share of farmers are reporting labor shortages, and current trends in labor supply could cause billions of dollars in lost revenue moving forward,” he said. “We know that if immigration enforcement efforts target agriculture, there could be major problems, including the direct effects of having arrests and deportations of workers on the farm, and what we call chilling effects, which are when workers get scared because they hear about immigration enforcement and don’t go to work because of fear of being deported.” 

Reduced labor supplies also put upward pressure on food prices and reduced domestic production increases reliance on imports. 

“This issue of the domestic labor supply has implications for us consumers, and also affects the trade balance in the U.S.,” Rutledge said. 

Family farm

Batten’s family farm in eastern North Carolina is a diversified row crop operation with beef cattle, and he understands the dilemma. 

“Labor is my biggest challenge,” he said. “Every year, it seems to become more and more of a headache.”  

About a decade ago—out of necessity—the Battens transitioned to an H-2A program because the local workforce was not available.  

“(It) was not reliable, and, quite frankly, couldn’t get the job done,” he said. “And as expensive and onerous as the program is, it’s more expensive to plant a crop and not be able to get it harvested.” 

The operators have been forced to mechanize much of their operation because relying on labor that may or may not show up was too much of a gamble with a high value crop sitting in the field.  

Batten wears multiple hats as he is in charge of human resources, plus he handles legal and accounting duties in addition to being a farmer.  

“As a sixth-generation farmer, I’ve got to grow our operation, maybe to support my kids to return one day,” he said. 

Sweet potatoes were an example of growing and diversifying his operation that he hopes can help with that goal. 

“They’re very labor intensive, and I saw quickly I needed to grow my acreage and build more housing and get more workers, and I just couldn’t justify that capital investment over time with an uncertain program that I wasn’t sure was going to be around,” he said. 

What keeps Batten awake at night is what would happen if the legacy ended.  

 “So, I wrestle with, am I doing them a favor or doing them a disservice by planting the seed and love for agriculture that they may never get to harvest?” 

Association views

Teagarden represented farmers and ranchers, cattle feeders and dairy farmers from Kansas, and said labor has been a challenge for many of them for a long time. 

“That largely has been our larger operations, cattle feeders and dairy operations—the folks that hire a number of workers,” he said. “But recently, the last few years, we have seen the cow-calf operations, stocker operations—they’re largely mom and dad and maybe a couple of kids and maybe (they) hire one or two outside workers. They also now are saying that there’s a crisis that they can’t hire the help that they need for the current operation, let alone expand.” 

Without new employees, they’re not able to expand or add more cattle. Teagarden believes the issue needs to be addressed in a positive way. Many KLA members in livestock operations can’t use the H-2A program because they’re not eligible. 

“Livestock work is year-round. We have to milk cows, feed cattle every day, and so it’s not seasonal,” he said. “And so, we’re not qualified to access the H-2A program, even if it were easy to use, and others have described some of the challenges with that program.” 

Livestock operators would like to see reform in the program, so guest worker options are available to fill the gap in labor needs. 

“But we need some modifications to allow for the year-round job that happens on livestock operations,” he said. 

The status of the current workforce needs to be addressed too.  

“We have individuals on our operations, longtime employees know their job well, do it well, do that critical work of caring for cattle on these operations, and we need to be able to keep them active on our farms, ranches, feed yards, and dairies,” Teagarden said. “I think it is clear to me that we can either import our workers or we can import our food, and that’s a key issue that we need to answer, and we need the help of the policymakers to do so.” 

Boswell agreed and said many farmers and ranchers are facing the struggle to find enough workers. Even though they’re passionate about the work they do, it’s still hard to tackle the challenge of not having enough labor available. 

“Without a lot of solutions, absent clear policy change, it’s sometimes daunting,” she said.  

Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].