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  1. #1
    Senior Member FedUpinFarmersBranch's Avatar
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    WI-Immigrant labor key to Wisconsin dairy farmers

    Immigrant labor key to Wisconsin dairy farmers
    By Jacob Kushner Monday, May 31, 2010 12:00 am


    John Rosenow began employing immigrant workers at his Buffalo County dairy after expanding his farm in 1997. On average, Wisconsin dairy farmers hired their first immigrant workers in 2000; immigrants now account for about 40 percent of the dairy farm employees in the state. .
    ..Farmers in America's Dairyland say they have become increasingly reliant on immigrant workers to milk the cows and clean the barns on their growing dairy operations.

    Immigrants make up nearly 60 percent of the work force at the state's largest dairy farms - those with more than 300 cows - but only 20 percent of workers at smaller dairies, according to a 2009 University of Wisconsin-Madison study.

    Farmers are "looking for low-cost reliable workers," said Brad Barham, a dairy researcher with the UW-Madison Agricultural Technology Studies program, which did the study of immigrants' roles on dairy farms.

    "It's met by immigrants or second-generation Americans."

    The demand for immigrant dairy workers is expected to remain strong as dairy producers and processors, who invested an estimated $1 billion in modernization projects from 2003 to 2007, forecast similar growth in coming years.

    But many - no one knows how many - of Wisconsin's immigrant dairy workers are in the U.S. illegally. Farmers say they follow federal rules to ensure their workers are legal. Immigration experts say the system doesn't screen out all undocumented workers.

    And farmers say the immigrants, most from Mexico, are critical to their operations.

    "If I couldn't have my Hispanic labor, I'd sell the dairy tomorrow," said Lafayette County farmer James Winn, whose 23 employees includes 16 Hispanic immigrants.

    The 5,300 immigrants now employed at the state's dairy farms account for 40 percent of the total dairy work force, compared with 5 percent a decade ago, according to the study.

    Adding workers to expand

    While most Wisconsin dairy owners first hired immigrants after expanding their farms, their reasons for expanding differ.

    In Buffalo County, Waumandee farmer John Rosenow saw expanding his dairy as a way to move up in the world.

    "What always bothered me is that I did just as well as my sisters in school, and they went on to a medical profession, and they made more money than I was farming," Rosenow said.

    After a 1989 barn fire decimated his dairy, Rosenow decided before rebuilding that "if we're going to have the standard of living that we want, we're going to have to milk more cows."

    He increased his herd from 100 to 300 cows, then in 1997 partnered with neighbor Loren Wolfe for a combined herd of 550.

    Like other farmers, Rosenow said he found local workers hard to come by. So he called an agricultural employment agency. Manuel Perez arrived in Waumandee two days later.

    "Out of desperation, and unwillingly, we hired our first Mexican and found an incredible work ethic, incredible reliability, no problem getting people to come and work," Rosenow said. "As more local people quit, we would replace them with Mexican labor."

    Rosenow estimates that since 2003, he's continuously employed eight Mexicans to milk the herd and perform other tasks. His expansion, made possible with immigrant laborers, allowed him to achieve prosperity, he said.

    Said Rosenow: "I make more money than my sisters, I'm doing what I love to do. I have spare time."

    Only bigger is better?

    UW Extension agricultural agent Paul Dyk said dairy owners too often buy into the notion that bigger is the only way.

    Dyk and Irv Possin, executive director of a state program that gives farmers financial incentives to expand, agree that viable alternatives exist, such as finding a niche market in the industry - going organic, becoming a seedstock producer or entering the compost business.

    Rosenow is composting manure at his farm - and said his compost business has a greater profit margin than his milk production.

    Another option to expansion can reduce technology and machinery on the farm, and prevent farm owners from going significantly into debt. Managed grazing takes cows out of their barns and back into pastures for a portion of their feed. A small UW-Madison study of 31 dairy farms found grazing operations earned twice as much per cow as similar confinement farms.

    Despite higher income, grazing operations are limited by the large amount of land they require.

    The bottom line for many farmers is that alternatives to expansion, such as grazing, simply do not offer as much total income potential as a larger farm, said Barham of UW Agricultural Technology Studies program.

    "If you're only at a certain scale, you're only at a certain income level. It's not the rate of return but just the amount of income," Barham said.

    The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, WisconsinWatch.org, collaborates with partners Wisconsin Public Radio, Public TV and the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication, along with other news media.

    Posted in Local on Monday, May 31, 2010 12:00 am


    http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/loc ... 03286.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member ReggieMay's Avatar
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    Rosenow estimates that since 2003, he's continuously employed eight Mexicans to milk the herd and perform other tasks. His expansion, made possible with immigrant laborers, allowed him to achieve prosperity, he said.
    While his neighbors pay health care expenses for eight Mexicans and their families. His neighbors' taxes educate Mexican children, pay for food stamps, utility and rent assistance, and on and on. The reason this dairy farmer has become prosperous is that he's shifted costs of doing business onto other taxpaying Americans.
    "A Nation of sheep will beget a government of Wolves" -Edward R. Murrow

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    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [quote:1b1g6x1r]Quote:
    Rosenow estimates that since 2003, he's continuously employed eight Mexicans to milk the herd and perform other tasks. His expansion, made possible with immigrant laborers, allowed him to achieve prosperity, he said.
    While his neighbors pay health care expenses for eight Mexicans and their families. His neighbors' taxes educate Mexican children, pay for food stamps, utility and rent assistance, and on and on. The reason this dairy farmer has become prosperous is that he's shifted costs of doing business onto other taxpaying Americans.[/quote:1b1g6x1r]
    You are exactly right ReggieMay. I wonder if he sits in church on Sunday with his neighbors that are paying for his prosperity. In my opinion, he is no better than a a thief.
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