Immigrants now 40 percent of state’s dairy workforce

By Jacob Kushner
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Dairy farmers face challenges hiring immigrant workers

Like many Wisconsin dairy farmers, Tim Servais needed help and he reluctantly faced the facts.

After he expanded his farm operation outside La Crosse in 1995, Servais relied on local adults, teenagers and farm kids to do what work he couldn’t handle himself.

“I’ve always tried to hire people who were local so I had some background on them,â€