Hispanic farmhands solving dairy labor crisis

WATERVILLE – A growing labor crisis is emerging in Maine’s dairy industry as young adults seek employment other than in the barn. Why work weekends, get dirty and cold when fast-food jobs and other opportunities are out there?

As a result, a new company has slipped into the widening crack between farmers and workers and is providing Hispanic farmhands – at a hefty price – for Maine’s struggling dairy farms.

More than 20 farmers met this week in Waterville to learn the ins and outs of hosting Hispanic farmhands.

“Hispanic workers on dairy farms in the East is relatively new, while in the West it is old hat,” said F. Brandon Mallory of Agri-Placement Services.

These are not migrant workers who travel the East Coast picking crops from oranges in Florida to broccoli in Maine. They have proper documentation, the so-called “green card,” and will stay for at least a year.

For a fee of between $1,000 and $2,200 each, a married Hispanic male will be delivered to the farmer’s barn door. Some of these workers are experienced; some are not. Some speak a bit of English; most do not.

The farm is expected to provide housing, amenities and a minimum of 40 to 60 hours of work per week at Maine’s minimum wage of $7.30 per hour. The majority of workers send most of each paycheck home to their families in Mexico and Guatemala. Their income seems a veritable fortune when compared to average hourly wages of 44 cents in Guatemala and 52 cents in Mexico.

Gary Anderson, a livestock specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said the importation of permanent workers is farmer-driven.

“They can’t find workers,” he said. “They are doing the work themselves and with family members now.”

And with the average age of Maine’s dairy farmers at 55, help is needed, according to Anderson.

“Dairy farming is skilled work that requires a trained work force,” said Mallory. “A reliable employee will result in higher yields, healthier herds and more profitability.”

Mallory said it is the United States’ relative prosperity that is providing work alternatives to Mainers in their 20s and 30s.

“At the same time that the rural population is decreasing, the size of farms is increasing,” he said. “But dairy farming has long hours, weekend hours; it is difficult, hard work. It is also perceived as having low wages, no overtime, and it’s cold and dirty. The young people today would rather flip hamburgers at McDonald’s for less money than work on a dairy farm.”

Demand for placement services such as APS is clear: The 5-year-old company now has Hispanic workers on 75 farms in New York, Vermont and Pennsylvania. Mallory expects to have laborers placed on 50 Maine farms in the next year or two.

The company, for a fee, also provides monthly support for the worker and the farmer. “This is not about taking a worker to the farm and dropping him off and saying, ‘Here he is. Good luck,'” said Mallory. “This is about support and communication.”

The farmers who are already participating in the program praised the workers. “They want to work 60 to 70 hours a week,” said Roland Hemon of Minot, who has two Hispanic workers on his farm. “I find them already waiting in the milking room when I arrive at 2 in the morning. They work hard.”

Karen and Lowell Piper of Embden are having a similar positive experience with three Hispanic farmhands. The Pipers milk 500 cows and said they found their workers to be hardworking employees.

“Farming is seven days a week, holidays, weekends and nights,” said Karen Piper. “Our youth are not willing to work like that.” She said her workers, who happen to be three brothers, are sacrificing a great deal. “These American jobs come at a high price,” she said. All of her workers have families in Mexico, and one is expecting a child any day.

“Their children call on the telephone and weep for them,” she said. “They are very homesick, but they know this is a great opportunity for them. They send every penny home they can muster.”

“There is a language barrier,” Piper said, “but we use a program on the computer and they’ve learned some English and we’ve learned some Spanish. We get by.”