U.S. farmers scramble for help as COVID-19 scuttles
immigrant workforce
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[July 02, 2020] By
Mark Weinraub and Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The novel coronavirus
delayed the arrival of seasonal immigrants who normally help harvest
U.S. wheat, leaving farmers to depend on high school students, school
bus drivers, laid-off oilfield workers and others to run machines that
bring in the crop.
As combines work their way north from the Southern Plains of Texas and
Oklahoma, farmers and harvesting companies are having a hard time
finding and keeping workers. Any delays in the harvest could send wheat
prices higher and cause a scramble to secure supplies to make bread and
pasta.
The United States is the world's No. 3 exporter of wheat, a crop in high
demand during the pandemic. A sustained labor shortage could impact the
soy and corn harvests that start in September.
Harvesting companies and farmers interviewed by Reuters said their new
U.S. employees have required more training and quit at higher rates than
usual, as the combines head north and begin to bring in other major
export crops.
While grain harvests are more automated than the labor-intensive fruit
and vegetable industries, they are not immune to labor shortages.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/May/08/images/ads/current/farmers_bank_sda_prom_050614.png)
Josh Beckley of Beckley Harvesting Inc, based in Atwood, Kansas,
typically counts on migrants for about 30% of his workers. The most
common visa for migrant agriculture workers is the H-2A, which allows
workers to stay in the United States for months at a time to work on
farms.
This year, Beckley had no foreign laborers on his crew. He has struggled
to find replacement workers, with many Americans unwilling to sign up
for months of traveling through the U.S. farm belt.
"They called back and said, 'Hey man, I just don't think I should leave
home with all this stuff going on,'" he said.
Farmers, who have been loyal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump,
have grown more reliant on immigrant labor in recent years. The Trump
administration continues to issue agriculture visas while clamping down
on tech workers, students and other groups.
Custom harvesters, or companies hired to gather crops by small-scale
farmers who do not own their own equipment, also employ migrants. They
roll up to a thousand combines across the U.S. Great Plains and Midwest
at harvest time, handling about 30% of the U.S. wheat crop.
The harvest crews follow a trail that begins in south Texas and winds
its way up the bread basket of the United States to the Canadian border.
The number of H-2A visas granted for agriculture equipment operators
rose to 10,798 from October through March, the typical hiring period for
harvesters looking for a labor force that starts cutting wheat in May.
That was up 49% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Labor
Department.
But many of those workers were unable to make it to the United States by
the time the harvesters set off on their annual trek, according to eight
harvesting companies and farmers interviewed by Reuters. Travel
restrictions, tighter border controls and virus fears around the globe
led to delays in workers getting out of their home countries.
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![](../images/070220pics/busine31.jpg)
A combine drives over stalks of soft red winter wheat during the
harvest on a farm in Dixon, Illinois, July 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jim
Young/File Photo
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'WISHY WASHY'
Ryan Haffner, owner of Kansas-based High Plains Harvesting, had planned for 10
workers with H-2A visas to make up the bulk of his workforce when harvest began.
But only four made it to the United States in time. He described his American
replacements as "very noncommittal and wishy washy." A laid-off oil worker
backed out before his first day, Haffner said.
U.S. Custom Harvesters Inc, which represents convoy operators, said finding
employees was the No. 1 issue for the industry.
The hiring difficulties are another headache for farmers who are struggling to
return to profitability after watching their net income fall by about 50% from
the 2013 peak. Now, their earnings are once again in doubt as sales to China
remain uncertain even after a Phase 1 trade deal.
So far, the winter wheat harvest was 41% complete as of Monday, in line with
recent years. The spring wheat crop will be harvested starting in August.
Even the biggest farmers, who own their own equipment, were having trouble
filling out their workforce with Americans.
Doug Zink, a North Dakota grower with 28,000 acres, was left shorthanded this
spring as two farmhands from South Africa did not arrive until late June.
"We had a lot of trouble getting our foreign workers over here," he said. "They
could not get flights."
If workers keep quitting, the wheat harvest in northern stretches of the Plains
and the harvest of the fall crops could be at risk.
David Misener, owner of Oklahoma-based Green Acres Enterprises, had planned on
hiring two immigrants to fill out his four-person crew. He struggled to find
suitable replacements, with three hires quitting within a week of starting.
"They could not fathom doing it and making it work," said Misener, who runs his
combines on a route that stretches from Texas to North Dakota from May into
December.
Misener said he is already looking for replacements for the two high school-aged
brothers on his crew who will drop off the trail when classes resume in August.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jul/02/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
"My hiring for the year is definitely not done," he said. "I am going to have to
recruit somebody that doesn't have to be in school."
(Reporting by Mark Weinraub and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; Additional reporting
by Christopher Walljasper in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Matthew
Lewis)
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