Greg Henderson, Editor, Associate Publisher, Drovers CattleNetwork   |   Updated: February 9, 2012

With spring rapidly approaching, American agriculture industries are increasingly worried about a growing labor shortage. An American Farm Bureau Federation economic analysis concluded that $5 billion to $9 billion in annual production is in jeopardy if the U.S. employee shortage cannot be filled.

A recent University of Georgia report found a projected loss of $391 million last year in the Peach State due to crop rot from labor shortages. Alabama is also experiencing severe economic losses due to labor shortage.

In Kansas, Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman is seeking a federal waiver that would allow companies to hire illegal immigrants. Rodman has met several times with officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about launching a pilot program that would place employers and illegal immigrants in a special state-organized network. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that the goal is to create a legal, straightforward manner of organizing existing immigrant labor.

Specifically, labor shortages are a problem for dairies and feedlots in western Kansas, and the idea of a waiver for illegal immigrants is favored by the Kansas Livestock Association, the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

In Georgia, Agriculture Commissioner Gary W. Black has released a report on agricultural labor in the state, recommending that the federal government provide farmers with a guest worker program that’ll help them harvest their crops legally and efficiently.

Last year Georgia and Alabama passed strict immigration reform laws that drove many farm workers out of both states. In Georgia, the new law empowers police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and sets new hiring requirements for certain employers, requiring many to start using the federal program called E-Verify to confirm that their newly hired employees are eligible to work in the United States.

In Alabama, the new immigration law allows local police to ask for immigration papers during routing traffic stops. It also requires schools to learn the immigration status of children at school registration time. As a result of this law, an estimated 185,000 Hispanics have left the state.

Speaking at the Southeast Region Fruit and Vegetable Conference held in Savannah, Ga., Commissioner Black said the federal government had failed in its responsibility to find a remedy for farm labor problems.

“The results of our survey continue to make clear that the solution to labor issues facing Georgia producers rests in the hands of the federal government,” said Black. 

“Agriculture is our state’s No. 1 industry, yet the federal government is failing to provide our farmers with the skilled labor they need to harvest crops in a legal and efficient manner. It is time our friends in Washington step up to the plate and provide us with a system that works.”

Immigration reform is a top priority for the American Farm Bureau Federation. “Farmers and ranchers face a shortage of workers who are willing and able to work on farms and in fields,” according to AFBF. “Reforms to the immigration system must assure that American agriculture has a legal, stable supply of workers, both in the short- and the long-term. This includes attracting a sufficient number of competent, willing and able employees to sustain and grow production; allowing the recruitment and hiring of non-resident agricultural workers when the need is demonstrated; and allowing an opportunity for some current non-resident agricultural workers to apply for legal resident status.”

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AZ  |  February, 09, 2012 at 08:52 AM

And by gosh we have counted on exploiting cheep labor for years and want the federal government to help us to continue doing so

St. Paul, MN  |  February, 09, 2012 at 09:10 AM

Labor demand exceeds labor supply. The obvious answer to this problem is to increase the supply. How is that done? The answer is to create more attractive positions -- greater compensation, better working conditions, and most important more meaningful work. Just as we have the research to increase the productivity of our production enterprises, today there is research that helps us create attractive positions. Let's use take control of our farm businesses by using those ideas and processes instead of seeking external help.

MN  |  February, 09, 2012 at 09:50 AM

Bobby, don't know for sure how to respond to your ignorance, but I think farmers have long ago given up exploiting people. We need help and sometimes the only ones coming to help (after exhaustive searches for help) are those not allowed to be here. If you are looking for a job milking cows we offer competitive wages, vacation time, and insurance, you must like cows, be willing to work nights and weekends in extreme heat and cold, right along side the farmers who operate these dairies.

Moore  |  February, 09, 2012 at 09:53 AM

It is almost unbelievable to read this article. There are by some estimates over 10% real unemployment and yet a shortage of labor. It seems to me that the
the shortage is in what Ag is willing to pay for labor to attract employees. These states have done the right thing in enforcing immigration laws that the Feds have
refused to do and now the Ag industry is crying and wanting Washington to provide them with cheap labor. Gary Black should be ashamed and embarrased for making
those comments. Cut off the welfare checks and unemployment extensions and offer a decent wage for a days work. You will have plenty of American labor. Hey, don't
forget the kids. Schools were out during the summer to allow children to work on family farms originally. It is O.K. for older kids to work and make money too. Let's get back
some common sense and the rule of law before it is too late.

MN  |  February, 09, 2012 at 10:45 AM

First rule of business - Don't build or expand where a qualified labor pool doesn't exist. Real unemployment for
citizens is over 16%, 25 million unemployed. I am a dairy farmer, $10/hour gets us the bottom of the barrel young
twenty-something men unable to function without supervision. USDA projects milk prices to fall more yet in 2012,
Americans don't want to pay what it takes to produce food in this country so producers can pay for quality employees.
I think this country is in a real dilema for which, unfortunately, the next generation is going to pay a heavy price.
No good sound bite answers here.

Mexico  |  February, 09, 2012 at 10:53 AM

Temporary work permits for Mexican labor. Both countries benefit in many ways.

WI  |  February, 09, 2012 at 12:22 PM

If our current agricultural system is loosing individual farmers every year, farm size is getting bigger and bigger every year, young people who want to farm are finding it almost impossible to get started in farming, existing corporate and mega farms need or at least expect federal subsidies in the billions of dollars annually and if they now they need to make it legal to use illegal aliens to keep their farms running, then our current agricultural system doesn’t sound very sustainable. I’m sure there are lots of industrial companies that would love to temporarily hire illegal aliens for a specific project and then send them home with no strings attached when the project is done. Where is the incentive for the milkers, fruit pickers, feedlot workers? Ten dollars an hour with no chance of advancement in responsibility or pay doesn’t exactly sound appealing to motivated young men or women. Face it, the jobs being offered are dead end jobs with a more or less guaranteed poverty level existence, and the working environment in most cases is not the bucolic fresh clean country air found in the marketing pictures on most product packaging. Maybe food prices need to go up a little, but in our current system I doubt if most of the increase would go to the farmers. I don’t have the answers, but I suggest the goal is to level the playing field so that small farmers with drive and initiative can make a living and to give young people a path to starting a career in agriculture. In case you’re wondering, I am a farmer! But I am an old small farmer who focuses on quality and profitability per acre and unit of labor, not max milk per cow or max bushels per acre.

USA  |  February, 09, 2012 at 03:50 PM

Hey greedy farners and ranchers....how bout paying a decent salary and benefits and hire AMERICANS. So sick of businesses, who for decades, have run afoul of the law and ripping off this country by hiring illegals and then crying about it when they have to play by the rules. If you can't do what is right by Americans and out laws then just out of business. Quit putting illegals in front of citizens. What a bunch of traitors they are to this country!!!

Ca  |  February, 10, 2012 at 02:28 AM

Well most of you folks wanted the Republican running the show. Now they are. You can thank Alabama,
Georgia and some of Florida Republicans for this mess. (Yeah I know they are illegals. Try telling that to
a dairy farmer or farmer in Alabama that all is rosey with the milking and the planting. Now we have Mitt,
Newt and Santorum beating the immigrant issue in some states for the red meat of their political base. How
is that working for you Republican farmers? You have enough hands to do the farming jobs correctly?
You see California doesn't have a State Immigration Law. Shoot, we'll take those farm hands from you.
We've got plenty of dairies and famers in Salinas Valley and grape growers in the San Joaquin valley.
So don't worry if you need milk or produce in your state, California will sell it to you after your farmers are
out of business. Oh by the way thanks for the workers we can use all the skilled farm hands you can send us.

mo  |  February, 10, 2012 at 05:50 AM

We have a legal american hispanic employee he has three family members who live with him, he supplys all their cigarettes and beer at least three cartoons a week and at least two cases of beer a week they wont leave the house and come to work for me ,only if I'll pay them in cash I hauled one of them to town to go grocery shopping last week she filled the backend of a s -10 pickup up with bags of grocerys she didnt have a dime ,and then asked me if I would buy them a cartoon of cigarettes on our way out of town. My question is why would anyone want to screw up something as good as they got all the food they want all they have to worry about is which one of them has to get out of bed to make breakfeast for the rest of them .whatever we do lets don't screw up the system,just some people have it figured out

Texas  |  February, 10, 2012 at 07:57 AM

Labor is like other commodities, shortages tend to disappear because the price goes up. Illegal aliens do not cost farmers much, but taxpayers get stuck paying more in education, cash welfare, health care, housing assistance and food stamps for the illegals. www.newsandopinions.net

  |  February, 10, 2012 at 03:53 PM

Send those collecting unemployment payments and welfare out to work in the fields!

Los Angeles, CA  |  February, 11, 2012 at 06:16 AM

America is now the "food stamp" nation that enables millions upon millions of lazy, shifty "Americans" to sit on the couch, watching TV while eating greasy chips even while the national debt is driven ever-higher.

With none of these food stamp "Americans" willing to work, our crops are going to waste.

Really, there is no way anyone could make this stuff up.

Middletown CT  |  February, 11, 2012 at 08:22 AM

We cannot reward illegal behavior, no matter what the reason!

I don't buy the labor shortage figures, either. It's all about cheap labor. Labor amounts to about 2% of the cost of harvesting produce. They could double wages and it would amount to about a nickle per head of lettuce. I think most of us would pay that willingly, to keep an American working.

Clarke County, Georgia  |  February, 11, 2012 at 10:12 AM

My work experience allowed me to visit every country in Latin America over a period of forty years. Wrestling with the undocumented immigrant situation has been interesting to follow.
Have we considered the development of programs to assist the illegals in becoming legal and also in becoming proficient in English? This could be the common sense approach to solving some of the labor problem. I learned enough Spanish during my times in Latin America to discuss the situation with the Hispanics living in my area. They want to become legals and are interested in improving their English. If we had a way for them to become legal, I believe many would do it. The federal government is not going to assist the states with the situation anytime soon, so can we see some enterprising and forward looking state legislator grab the situation by the horns and propose something as radical as attacking the problem where it exists - at home? You might say this would not be legal in itself, but did we not pass legislation already that is considered to be in conflict with the feds?
If someone is interested in trying a different approach - like a plan to get illegals legal and/or teaching them English to make them more useful, I will be glad to help. The longer we wait the more likely the problem will become more difficult to solve.

Parkville, MO  |  February, 11, 2012 at 10:46 AM

We'll never see Welfare Americans accept farm labor jobs. Illegals, on the other hand, will gladly accept the $10 and $12 per hour jobs in dairies, feedlots, fruit orchards and meat packing plants that Welfare Americans refuse. Back in the fifties, the Bracero program successfully paired Mexican workers with farmers needing field help. I have to believe there's a solution to ag's need for workers.

California  |  February, 11, 2012 at 06:48 PM

Special interests always make this claim, when pressure to slow/stop illegal immigration begins to rise. What they don't say is that less than 3% of illegals even work in agriculture. If we instituted E-verify on a nationwide basis, with limited exceptions for farm labor, the millions of illegals now working in manufacturing, construction, trucking, etc. would either shift into agriculture or self deport. This could possibly free up millions of jobs for American citizens. Jobs that could be directed towards our bloated welfare roles.

Jamesville, NY  |  February, 12, 2012 at 06:40 PM

This is what's known as the Law of Unintended Consequences; what sounds like a good idea is put into law without thinking it through!
Ya know, the poultry industry had a similar situation a few years back and it was cured by a program that's already in place. The producers went to Mexico, recruited personnel that they needed, and registered them with the State Dep't. Did that program go away?

Culiacán. México  |  February, 12, 2012 at 08:27 PM

Se necesita dignificar el trabajo y el nivel de vida de la humanidad.

Para los "mexicanos" el ingreso de la agricultura significa mal sobrevivir en USA y enviar un poco de dinero para sus familias en México.

Para los "estadounidenses" definitivamentet debería significar alcanzar un nivel de vida deseable de acuerdo con la forma de vida en las comunidades dedicadas a la agricultura, ganaderia y pesca.

Dignify the work for humanity

SD  |  February, 18, 2012 at 06:33 PM

Why does NO ONE mention the fact that payment for jobs in private businesses (as contrasted with government jobs) have to be what the income from the product harvested brings????

How can farmers pay 'living wage', whatever that is, if what they sell brings less than enough to pay costs of production, let alone a minimal profit for his family to live on????

Yes, Illegal Aliens are commiting a crime and should not be rewarded for it.

Yes, there should be a temporary worker program.

Face the fact that with farms 98%+ FAMILY OWNED, that evil "corporate" agriculture is a myth promulgated to create envy and anmity of perceived "wealthy corporate farmers".

Otter Lake  |  February, 20, 2012 at 03:21 PM

It use to be that a person could make a good living and provide for their family on a dairy that was of a size that
it could be taken care of by that family. Now with the wide spread use of cheap labor from illegal aliens one
cannot even though the worker per cow ratio is about the same under both systems. I think it should be
mandatory that all dairies use e-Verify for their hired help. Those that built a business on the idea of the use of
illegal labor should fail if they can’t adapt to hiring American workers paid a fair wage. Twenty years ago when
the vast majority of laborers on American dairy farms where legal U.S. citizens milk was affordable to the
American population and I see no reason why it couldn’t and shouldn’t be so now even if the industry was
deprived of it illegal work force. Having worked in the energy industry I can personally attested that there is no
job that an American will not do if he is offered a fair wage for what is being asked of him. It is shameful that
the family dairy farms of America have been destroyed by the unbridled greed of a few and their use of an illegal
work force. I still content that he should be rotting in jail for treason and should have permanently lost his milk
licenses. It would be nice to see this knuckle dragger deported back to the Netherlands after he has paid his
dues. It is a travesty that Dairy Herd Management sides with these plantation style dairies instead of the family
dairy farms the use to make up the major of the dairy industry.

Otter Lake, MI  |  February, 20, 2012 at 03:23 PM

It is the Big Time Operators who have forced many of the family dairy farms in this country out of business.
They do so by implementing a business model that use illegal aliens to drive the price of milk below the cost of
production. Most of the increase in milk production in the last couple of decades has been because of these
large plantation style dairies whose business model is dependent on use of cheap illegal alien labor. These
greedy large dairy owners also planned on using the social welfare system (i.e. us taxpayers) to provide their
illegal workers health care, food stamps, housing assistance, education and many other benefits. I’m sure they
would gladly use slaves if they could get away with it.

SD  |  March, 02, 2012 at 05:28 PM

Mr. Sickner, you seem excessively certain of your take on 'life down on the farm' and reasons for smaller dairies in particular, no longer being run 'by the family'.

I disagree. It seems more logical that it is modern media, TV in particular that caused this change. Those kids the farmer used to press into service on that dairy have seen what life is like for their 'county seat town' contemporaries! And they don't want that life-style their parents have had. Darn few people want to work, let alone a 50 to 70 hour work week like many have had to do to make a living farming.