Farmers are confronted with a long list of challenges and labor is one of the biggest concerns facing dairy. Live from the Milk Business Conference, Arizona dairy farmer, Casey Dugan, recently spoke with AgriTalk’s guest host, Davis Michaelson, about the hurdles his dairy has jumped through the last several years when it comes to labor.
Dugan shares that approximately 37 producers in Arizona produce all the milk for the Grand Canyon State.
Alongside his wife, Andrea, Dugan owns and operates Desperado Dairy, milking 2,000 cows and farms 200 acres in Pinal County. Between Desperado Dairy and his father’s nearby farm, Du Brook Dairy, and their mutual feed operation, the family has 60 employees all together.
In 2019, the Dugans teamed up with the Florence West Prison to help fill vacant positions. The Arizona dairy producer shared with Michaelson that it all works pretty smoothly and for the most part the inmates just want to work.
“Most people question hiring inmates,” Dugan says. “But these guys in the work program are model inmates, meaning they went to prison because they got two DUI’s or something like that. We currently have 13 inmates now working for us, and they come out every day, seven days a week.”
Dugan shares that they have hired a handful of them once after they got out of prison, giving them both a place to work and a full-time job. Working with the prison has changed Dugan’s opinion about inmates and the prison industry.
“They’re good people. Most think they’re convicts, but they also have good in them. You just have to find it,” he says.
To listen to the AgriTalk segment with Dugan in its entirety, click on AgriTalk-12-13-22-Casey Dugan - AgriTalk - Omny.fm To read the full story on how Dugan dairies teamed up with the Florence West Prison to help fill vacant positions and the headaches COVID-19 added to their labor challenges, click here Inmates Help Fill Labor Vacancies at Arizona Dairy | Dairy Herd
