Milk operations function year-round, unlike the seasonality seen of some other types of farms. This means short-term guest worker programs can't adequately meet immigrant labor needs for dairy. Farmers are having difficulty hiring local labor, even with pay starting at $11 an hour or more, and with benefits that include a 401(k), many in the industry say.
"It's hard to get people that want to come out and do this type of work," Mark Diederichs, general manager of a Wisconsin dairy, told Bloomberg BNA.
Dairies would close, milk production would drop and milk prices could nearly double if immigrant labor dries up, according to a survey by researchers at Texas A&M University commissioned by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF).
The study found:
Immigrant labor accounts for 51% of all dairy labor, and dairies that employ immigrant labor produce 79% of the US milk supply.
Dairy farm workers are paid an average wage of $11.54 per hour, and with non-wage benefits included, an annual equivalent compensation of $34,443. Dairy farms that hire immigrant labor pay higher average wages than farms that do not hire immigrants.
Dairy farms employed an estimated 150,418 workers in 2013. An estimated 76,968, or 51% of those are immigrants.
Eliminating immigrant labor would reduce the US dairy herd by 2.1 million cows, milk production by 48.4 billion pounds and the number of farms by 7,011. Retail milk prices would increase by an estimated 90.4%.
Eliminating immigrant labor on dairy farms would reduce US economic output by $32.1 billion and reduce employment by 208,208 jobs.
Approximately 64% of the losses would occur in input supply sectors and services provided to US dairy farms.