For some farmers, harvest is all about finding workers

Click to Enlarge A seasonal migrant worker gathers onions during harvest for Zabka Farms in a field off of Weld County Road 44 Thursday southwest of La Salle. Area farmers have struggled this year with finding enough labor. BRET HARTMAN / bhartman@greeleytribune.com Browse Our Galleries

Bill Jackson, (Bio) bjackson@greeleytribune.com
August 19, 2007

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Click to Enlarge Seasonal migrant workers scour a field Thursday on Weld County Road 44 southwest of La Salle for Zabka Farms’ onion harvest. BRET HARTMAN / bhartman@greeleytribune.com Browse Our Galleries

It's been a typical farming year, some good and some bad. But for farmers who grow crops that need intense labor, there's been more bad than good -- but even the bad wasn't as bad has it could have been. Take Sakata Farms, for instance. The Brighton-based operation grows sweet corn, onions, broccoli, cabbage and other vegetable crops -- produce that needs a lot of hand labor throughout the year. The head of the operation, which has acreage spread out through Adams and Weld counties, is Bob Sakata, who's been at it for 62 years.

"I can remember only one year, back in the '70s, when it was like this, rain, rain and more rain," Sakata said. That, he said, has eased concerns about having enough irrigation water to get through the season.

But the labor problem? That hasn't changed, said Sakata, who needs about 200 seasonal workers throughout the growing season to plant, cultivate and harvest his vegetable crops.

Sakata said he realized early in the year that the only way to get the labor he needed was to go through the H-2A worker program. Knowing he would need the workers by early June, Sakata said he filled out the proper paperwork with the U.S. Department of Labor. Then it had to go to Homeland Security, where it remained through June and into July.

Frustrated, Sakata said he finally called the office of U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard to get help. Then a hail storm hit, wiping out or severely damaging 1,500 acres of cropland across the two counties.

"So I withdrew my application," Sakata said. It was too late to replant the vegetable crops, so Sakata said that land was planted to pinto beans and grain corn for ethanol, crops that don't require the same type of labor.

That didn't end his frustration.

He remains upset that Congress did not pass a guest-worker program, a proposal that would have provided 400,000 visas annually for immigrants seeking temporary employment. Under that program, most would have to go home for a year at the end of each two-year stay in the country, and they would have to return home permanently at the end of year six.

"I am disappointed with Congress," Sakata said. "And that's everyone in Congress who is more concerned about getting re-elected rather than doing something that is good for the country."

He's not alone among those in agriculture in need of seasonable labor.

Hungenberg Produce of Greeley, which grows, processes and ships carrots and cabbage, recognized labor was not going to be available this year, so the company spent about $1 million on automated equipment that reduced its workforce in half at its processing facility north of Greeley.

Randy Knutson, farm manager for Zabka Farms/Martin Produce, said finding qualified labor for the produce company's two onion/potato warehouses in Greeley and Peckham was difficult at best, but that produce operation has been able to find field labor, partly due to weather conditions.

"We had a difficult time finding enough help in the warehouses this year, finding people with the expertise we needed," Knutson said. "I was pleasantly surprised, however, with the field labor." He said the harvest of the transplanted onion harvest has been interrupted by rain and he's been able to get help on a daily basis when needed. "So we've really done pretty good."

Northern Colorado is a major onion growing area. Transplanted onions are harvested for the fresh market; those onions raised by seed will be harvested later in the summer and most of those will go into storage to be marketed during the fall and winter months.

Dairy farms also are dependent on labor and Bill Wailes, dairy specialist and head of the animal sciences department at Colorado State University, is taking a group of state dairymen to a Morris, Minn., dairy this week which he said has solved at least part of the problem.

Wailes said the dairy, which milks 20,000 cows at three locations, has gone to the U.S. Department of Labor's H-1B visa, which requires a technical skill by a potential employee. Once a specific job skill is identified, then the employer must prove there is no one in the region available to fill that job.

The number of visas available under that program is 20,000.

But Wailes said nearly half the Minnesota operation's employees are working under that program.

"It's a dynamic dairy operation, probably the best dairy I've ever seen and I've been at it all my life," Wailes said.