Thread: Dairyland diversity: Immigrant work force growing in FdL Cou

Dairyland diversity: Immigrant work force growing in FdL County
and Jacob Kushner • The Reporter ckottke@fdlreporter.com
March 28, 2010

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When unemployment was at an all-time low 10 years ago, many farmers in Fond du Lac County had a difficult time finding labor.

Those who did show up on the farm weren't enamored with the long hours and soon moved on, leaving the farmer to scramble for help.

In the last decade, the need for workers on the farm has increased, especially with the expansion of dairy herds.

In Fond du Lac County, 17 farms alone house 35 percent of all the milking cows in the county, said Paul Dyk, UW-Extension dairy and livestock agent for Fond du Lac County. To fill those positions, many producers have turned to immigrant laborers.

"When Hispanics began showing up on the farms 10 years ago, they proved that they could show up every morning and work hard," Dyk said. "Those are the guys farmers want. Farmers don't care if they're Hispanic or not as long as they're reliable."

Just 10 years ago, 5 percent of workers on Wisconsin dairy farms were immigrants. But by 2008, that number jumped to 40 percent, or more than 5,000 workers, according to a 2009 study by the UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.

Dyk said the number is closer to 50 percent in Fond du Lac County.

Those immigrants are changing the face of the state's signature industry, while bringing increasing diversity and social challenges to the state's rural areas.

Goodbye farm kids
Dyk said the exodus of succeeding generations from the family farm isn't a new trend. In fact, he said family farms have been disappearing from the landscape for more than 100 years. In 1900, over 4,050 dairy herds were housed on farms throughout the county. Today, that number has dropped to under 400.

Many of those families relied on their children to take over the farm once the dad retired.

"The fact is farmers have fewer children and a lot of those kids don't necessarily want to be working 80 hours a week. They're looking for a different kind of living," Dyk said. "And some families don't want the financial commitment involved in expanding to support additional families

Finding local teens to fill the labor gap is iffy at best, Dyk said.

"Today's kids have a lot more going on in their lives, and some of them would rather flip burgers than milk cows," he said. "And you have less farm kids in the neighborhood to choose from. Even if a kid lives out in the county, there's a chance he's never even seen a cow let alone milked one."

In need of a work force they can depend on and afford, many farmers turn to immigrants to keep operations running smoothly.

"We need them to milk cows or we'd barely be in business," Loren Wolfe, co-owner of a 575-cow dairy farm near Cochrane, Wis., said of the Hispanic immigrants he employs.

The need for immigrant workers is magnified by low milk prices, as farmers depend upon affordable labor to remain profitable. Dyk said the term 'cheap labor' on local farms is a misconception.

"None of these guys milking cows are making minimum wage — they're all making $9 to $11 an hour," Dyk said. "Farmers have to pay affordable wages to remain competitive with California, Texas and Idaho that use Hispanic labor."

The hiring process
While locals are hard to find, immigrant applicants are numerous.

Sandi Zirbel, co-owner of a 635-cow dairy cooperative outside of Green Bay, said the influx of immigrants is evident in her company's staff. Zirbel said immigrants frequently come looking for work, and as many as 19 out of 20 applicants are immigrants. Two-thirds of those applications get tossed.

"Some of them simply just don't fit into the system, either because of how much they're asking per hour or what their experience is," Zirbel said.

Despite the number of applicants who are rejected, it's easy to find enough qualified workers to fill the need.

"They're more likely to seek this type of work," Zirbel said. "Why somebody would want to leave Mexico and come to Wisconsin to milk in the middle of winter, I don't know … but there's a lot of them up here."

The rules
Although dairy farm owners go through the same legal hiring process as all employers, many say the process is complicated by the assumption that many Hispanics are undocumented, meaning they don't have the proper work visas or have come to the United States illegally.

"In my opinion, there is a high percentage of undocumented labor that is being used in dairy farms," said Erich Straub, a Milwaukee attorney who specializes in deportation defense. Straub said because of contradictory immigration laws, it is in the best interest of farmers not to know if their workers are illegal.

While most farmers will tell you they follow the rules, Straub said the larger problem is that employment law is vague enough to allow some undocumented workers to slip through the cracks.

Employers must require all job applicants to fill out a federal I-9 employment eligibility form and show multiple forms of identification to prove they are authorized to work. Employers send the applicant's Social Security number to the Social Security Administration for tax purposes. Unless they receive a "no-match" letter stating the Social Security number does not match a known worker, applicants are cleared for employment.

"Documentation is a tough issue, because how does a farmer really know what documentation is real and not real," Dyk said. "We have people from Eastern Europe and South Africa that are white and speak pretty good English — so how do we know that anyone is in our country legally? It's an issue that's not only prevalent on farms but also in the retail, hotel and restaurant industries."

Undocumented immigrants often evade the issue by guessing at a valid number, or by paying someone to provide them with a Social Security number of an eligible worker, immigrants and experts said.

Dyk said employers must examine a worker's identification documents and make a good faith decision as to their validity.

"That's what they're required to do," Dyk said. "It's no different than any other small business. How do you know?"

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And no one thinks to use E-Verify?

Originally Posted by vortex

And no one thinks to use E-Verify?

"In my opinion, there is a high percentage of undocumented labor that is being used in dairy farms," said Erich Straub, a Milwaukee attorney who specializes in deportation defense. Straub said because of contradictory immigration laws, it is in the best interest of farmers not to know if their workers are illegal.

They don't want to use E-verify because they don't want to know if the workers are legal or not! They simply claim they are following the rules and that is apparently enough to keep them from getting in trouble. Nobody takes it seriously obviously!

There are numerous programs already in place that would help these dairy farmers find immigrant help in a legal manner. They are choosing to employ illegals. Where I vacation in northern Wisconsin, there are a number of business that employ LEGAL Polish students as summer help. There is simply no excuse for illegals being employed. Good think I don't like milk.