Immigrant Daily

NMPF Sponsored Survey Finds Dairy Farms Reliance on Foreign Workers

A comprehensive national survey sponsored by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) on the employment practices of America’s dairy farmers has observed that they rely heavily on foreign workers, the loss of which would cripple many farms and rural economy. Working with researchers at Texas AgriLife Research, NMPF surveyed more than 2,000 dairy farms last fall to assess their hiring practices and noticed that U.S. dairies employed 138,000 full-time equivalent workers, of which 57,000 or 41% were foreigners. According to the Texas AgriLife Research calculations, a 50% reduction in the dairy immigration workforce would lower milk production by 7.9%, leading to a 30% increase in retail prices. They also estimated that if federal labor and immigrant policies were to result in the loss of just half of the 57,000 foreign-born dairy workers, an additional 66,000 worker would be lost due to closure of some dairy farms. Consequently, this would cause an economic loss of $11 billion. Urging the Congress to address the problem, Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, said, “Congress needs to act quickly to pass legislation such as the AgJobs bill, recently introduced in both the House and Senate. AgJobs is a step towards comprehensive reform of the nation’s immigration laws, which is clearly needed.”

For detailed information, please read: NMPF Sponsored Survey Finds Dairy Farms Reliance on Foreign Workers