Thread: Dairy farmers, in dire need of workers, feel helpless as immigration reform sours

New York state dairy farmer Mike McMahon. He says lawmakers in Washington need to address immigration reform so he and other farmers can find enough workers to sustain their operations. (Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times)


By Tina Susman contact the reporter


March 30, 2015, 4:00 AM|Reporting from HOMER, N.Y.


When Mike McMahon's Latino employees need to go to the bank, the pharmacy or the grocery store, he makes sure someone drives them to town, waits while they run errands, and then brings them safely back to his dairy farm..


Even then, there is no guarantee law enforcement in their small, rural community won't spot the workers, ask for their IDs, and put them on a path toward deportation if they cannot prove they are here legally. It is a risk that dairy farmers in this agricultural region have faced for years, but it is hitting them harder as immigration reform languishes in Washington and the nation's demand for milk-heavy products like Greek yogurt soars.


"It's just crazy," said McMahon, who has several hundred cows at his farm more than 200 miles north of New York City.


"I'm a lifelong Republican," he said, shaking his head. "But I'm telling you, there are days when I think about switching."


“Most people think of border and immigration issues as happening in the Southwest, but it's a real issue up here.”
- Mary Jo Dudley, who heads the Cornell Farmworker Program at Cornell University

McMahon and other dairy farmers in central and upstate New York are in a quandary. On one hand, farms have thrived because of several factors, including the popularity of yogurt in recent years and drought in other milk-producing countries. At the same time, they are battling to find the reliable, year-round labor that 24/7 milking operations require.


Locals won't do the dirty, manual jobs, farmers say, and immigration laws limit farmers to importing only seasonal agricultural employees. That does not help dairy farmers, who need year-round workers.


"The nation's food system is at risk if we can't get this fixed," McMahon said one chilly day as scores of cows stood placidly in his farm's milking parlor, which was pungent with the smell of manure. Workers went up and down the rows, checking to see that cows' teats were attached to the metal milking machines.


Last month, Dean Norton, a dairy farmer who is president of the New York Farm Bureau, traveled to Washington to argue for reform, including a guest-worker program catering to dairy farmers. At this point, though, given the partisan divide in Washington, few people expect to see change any time soon.


"Less than 15%, and that's probably a high number," Norton said when asked the chances of dairy farmers getting help from lawmakers.


The dairy farmers have seen some relief lately because of a slowdown in milk demand. They attribute this to several things, including the stronger dollar, which makes U.S. milk more expensive to overseas buyers, and stockpiles of milk from China. But fluctuations in milk prices and demand are cyclical, and Norton said as long as things like cottage cheese and yogurt grow in popularity, so will dairy farmers' labor woes.


Without new immigration laws, he and other farmers say, the nation will lose dairy producers, because farmers will switch to growing crops whose workers are eligible for temporary guest-worker visas.


"The U.S. dairy industry absolutely cannot survive without this," said Dale, a dairy farmer who has moved toward robotic milking to avoid the labor problem. Like many dairy farmers, he did not want his full name or his farm's name used because he was concerned that immigration officials would target his business.


Robotics are too expensive for most farmers; each machine costs about $250,000. They also cannot do the tasks that farmers say humans must handle, including cleaning teats and udders, and basic farm maintenance.


The problem has simmered for years, but it became more urgent with the Greek yogurt boom since yogurt maker Chobani's arrival in upstate New York in 2005. Seven years later, New York was the nation's yogurt capital, surpassing California to become the No. 1 producer. That success was fueled in large part by the demand for Greek yogurt, which is denser and creamier than regular yogurt.


"You've got to have really, really good milk. That's the key to great yogurt," Chobani spokesman Michael Gonda said as he led a visitor through the Chobani factory in the hamlet of New Berlin.


In a 150,000-square-foot warehouse, which is kept at a steady 34 degrees, more than 1.5 million cases of yogurt in flavors ranging from the usual, like strawberry and blueberry, to the unusual, like green tea, waited to be shipped to retailers. Machines worked at dizzying speeds, slapping labels on white yogurt cups that made their way via conveyor belts into filling rooms. There, more machines squirted fruit into each cup and topped the fruit with dollops of creamy, white yogurt.


Chobani is now one of more than 40 yogurt producers in the state, and it is by far the largest. In 2000, the state had about 14 yogurt processing plants.


Dairy farmers say the yogurt boom has been a blessing. "It happened overnight," said Dale, who watched the state's dairy industry shrink through the 1980s and '90s. "All of a sudden, New York had all these great yogurt things going on."


He and McMahon said they tried to stick to local labor but succumbed to hiring migrant workers as their workloads increased.


Both men, and Norton, blame the problem more on attitudes than on economics. McMahon, for example, said his farmworkers all started at $2,000 a month and get a three-bedroom house plus utilities and other benefits. Even so, McMahon said attempts to hire locals have failed.


"Nobody wants to go out there and deal with cows and get manure up their sleeves," said McMahon, who once advertised three straight weeks to find workers. Three locals applied, and only one worked out, he said. He now depends on Latino workers, most of them members of an extended family from Mexico.


Keeping them safe from immigration is a constant concern. Anyone obviously foreign-born sticks out in these largely white communities. The area is about 100 miles from the U.S.-Canada border, and there is a 360-bed immigration detention center in the region.


Mary Jo Dudley, who heads the Cornell Farmworker Program at Cornell University, said in a report in October that the state would need more than 2,200 additional farmworkers and about 100,000 more cows to ensure the steady production of sufficient milk to satisfy yogurt makers' needs.


"Most people think of border and immigration issues as happening in the Southwest, but it's a real issue up here," said Dudley, who regularly visits dairy farms and hears stories from farmers and their workers about the latest detentions and scares.


McMahon told of one trusted worker, Antonio, who got word from his wife in Mexico that their young son had a brain tumor. He was desperate to visit them, so McMahon gave him some cash, wished him luck and let him go. Antonio was caught in Brownsville, Texas. By the time he was deported, his son had died.


McMahon hasn't seen Antonio since and does not expect to, because of the cost of hiring coyotes to guide people over the southern border.


"I pray to God Jeb Bush is our next president," McMahon said, "because he's married to a Mexican woman. He gets it."


tina.susman@latimes.com


Twitter: @TinaSusman


http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...ry.html#page=1

When Mike McMahon's Latino employees need to go to the bank, the pharmacy or the grocery store, he makes sure someone drives them to town, waits while they run errands, and then brings them safely back to his dairy farm..

Both men, and Norton, blame the problem more on attitudes than on economics. McMahon, for example, said his farmworkers all started at $2,000 a month and get a three-bedroom house plus utilities and other benefits. Even so, McMahon said attempts to hire locals have failed.

"Nobody wants to go out there and deal with cows and get manure up their sleeves," said McMahon, who once advertised three straight weeks to find workers. Three locals applied, and only one worked out, he said. He now depends on Latino workers, most of them members of an extended family from Mexico.

Okay, so you advertise "locally" in some little village almost in Canada, yet you hire Latinos from Mexico. Have you thought about hiring Americans by advertising and recruiting from outside your little village of Homer? Because there are thousands of Americans working in the dairy business all across this country, and there are many others with experience in working in dairy that would love to have a job and are willing to work in that business. You might have to change the way you pay them. They may want to select their own living arrangements and have more money. Do you provide a 3 bed-room house with utilities to each of your employees or do they all live in that one house? That really won't fly with Americans. I'm sure you know that. So you might have to pay Americans more money and do something else with the house, maybe move one of your kids or grandkids into it. You might also have to offer relocation expenses since most unemployed Americans don't have the money to relocate. You'll also have to abide a 40 hour week or pay overtime, and they'll want some vacation time with or without pay, and some holiday time, and so on and so forth. And if they're married, you might also have to help their spouses find a job in the area, since most married Americans are two-income families.

But on the bright side, when you pay Americans a proper wage with adequate benefits, they'll have their own vehicle, maybe even 2 if they're married, and you won't have to waste your time driving them to the bank and store every month. Some of them you can even pay to help you run your business-related errands.

You whining illegal employers really do make me sick. Here is a country that is sucking up milk faster than any country in the world, eating cheese and yogurt and all types of dairy related products, and instead of counting your blessings of living in a milk nation that is lining your pockets beyond your wildest dreams, you're sitting there running a slave labor immigrant camp whining at Republicans who don't want to see that in our country.

Expand your search area, go out there and recruit workers like all good employers do who operate in little towns with no population, and develop a pay and benefits package that draws American workers who can live and function like Americans, and your labor shortage will solve itself overnight.

I can emphasize with these farmers a bit. Milking cows is done twice daily, 7days a week, 365/year. As Dad said, milk cows do not recognize daylight savings time, Easter, Christmas or New Years or birthdays.

I think 3 years out of H.S. a dairy farmer advertised for partime help. Being a new father I applied, the farm was nine miles from town. Having been raised on a farm with milking experience, I got the job. Job took about 3 or so hours an evening, milked and did what lite veterinary work needed. Cleaned the barn and the dairy equipment. Then I could leave, on the first of the month I picked up my pay check. My check was eighty dollars a month.

Come first of the year, I had started the job in Sept., I filed my taxes honestly, and after I took inventory about my partime job, it had cost me about 30 dollars to milk his cows for 4 months. I told him that I needed 140 a month to continue, and he was angry. He did not counter offer, I told him that would work til a week from Sun. then it was over, because half the time he did not even see that his kids have the cows out of the field and in the holding pen as promised. Another couple hours a week that cost me and no overtime.

About 6 months later my Dad encountered this farmers father. Of course, Dad inquired about his son's milking business. He was angry with his son, it seems the guy he hired to replace me was a city boy, did not do the routine veterinary work, all the milking stock became infected and had to be disposed of. He told my Dad that he would have been ahead paying me 300 month to keep me around.

Training and/or experience is required to make a milk hand. The cows must be properly attended every day, every year.

Originally Posted by kevinssdad

I can emphasize with these farmers a bit. Milking cows is done twice daily, 7days a week, 365/year. As Dad said, milk cows do not recognize daylight savings time, Easter, Christmas or New Years or birthdays.

I think 3 years out of H.S. a dairy farmer advertised for partime help. Being a new father I applied, the farm was nine miles from town. Having been raised on a farm with milking experience, I got the job. Job took about 3 or so hours an evening, milked and did what lite veterinary work needed. Cleaned the barn and the dairy equipment. Then I could leave, on the first of the month I picked up my pay check. My check was eighty dollars a month.

Come first of the year, I had started the job in Sept., I filed my taxes honestly, and after I took inventory about my partime job, it had cost me about 30 dollars to milk his cows for 4 months. I told him that I needed 140 a month to continue, and he was angry. He did not counter offer, I told him that would work til a week from Sun. then it was over, because half the time he did not even see that his kids have the cows out of the field and in the holding pen as promised. Another couple hours a week that cost me and no overtime.

About 6 months later my Dad encountered this farmers father. Of course, Dad inquired about his son's milking business. He was angry with his son, it seems the guy he hired to replace me was a city boy, did not do the routine veterinary work, all the milking stock became infected and had to be disposed of. He told my Dad that he would have been ahead paying me 300 month to keep me around.

Training and/or experience is required to make a milk hand. The cows must be properly attended every day, every year.

And things are no different today. There is ample Americans trained and experienced in dairy farming, all over the country, and many of them need work, but they are going to require what they require, a proper wage, proper hours, overtime, free time, and if moving into the area from some distance, some relocation expense, and possibly a job in the area for a spouse if they're married. But the old line about Americans not wanting to cow manure up their sleeves, that thee farmers up in New York were claiming, is absolute bull. Americans have never shied away from farm work, hard work or dirty work, and they're no different today. The only difference today is that they can't get the jobs at the wages and with the conditions and terms they need because they're being sold out by the employers and undercut by illegal aliens.

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9/18/15

"It found the average hourly wage on dairy farms in 2013 was $11.54, 16 percent higher than in 2008. By comparison, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour."

http://www.alipac.us/f12/losing-immi...prices-323447/