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The goal is to have at least 20 producers per state participate to get a more accurate picture of dairy labor rates.

“The withdrawal of the proposal is a victory for common sense,” says Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation.

One culture values time and sacrifices relationships. The other fosters relationships over time and productivity.

Muchos productores de leche emplean trabajadores de habla hispana.

Dairy interests say decision could spawn ‘copycat’ legislation in other states and significantly affect employers who employ undocumented workers.

As shortages of workers have intensified on Henderson County apple orchards and farms across the country, congressional panels have turned their attention toward proposals to fix the problem.

Paul Wenger tells congressional committee, “E-Verify without a workable, economical way to ensure a legal agricultural work force will be a disaster for American agriculture.”

Florida’s fruit and vegetable growers say their biggest challenge is ensuring they have enough workers to pick their crops and get them onto grocery shelves."The whole immigration reform issue needs to be addressed at the federal level,” said Marie Bedner, whose family owns Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market west of Boynton Beach. “In Georgia, they had no labor to pick the crops. They rotted in the field."Two labor experts told Bedner and other growers at the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association’s 68th annual meeting Tuesday that if E-Verify becomes mandatory, it would be a disaster for domestic farmers. E-Verify is an electronic system designed to prevent the employment of undocumented workers in the U.S. through a cross-check of Social Security numbers and names.

Keys to a highly engaged work force.

AUDIE CORNISH: In Kansas, a coalition of conservative farm businessmen and liberal social advocates is pushing for an unusual law, one that would create a state-sanctioned work program benefitting illegal immigrants. Peggy Lowe, of Harvest Public Media, reports that their fiercest opponent is the Kansas politician who wrote Arizona’s tough immigration law.PEGGY LOWE: It’s a long way from Forget-Me-Not Farms to the Kansas state capitol. But T.J. Curtis drove the 300 miles because he needs more workers for his family’s dairy farm in the far western part of the state.