By Carol Miller, Editor, American Vegetable Grower
Since labor is the perennial challenge for most growers, American Vegetable Grower devotes a significant section of its annual State of the Vegetable Industry Survey to the topic. The survey benefits from a robust response from growers – boasting a 4% margin of error with a 99% confidence level.
To better understand the results, our editorial team reached out to two leading ag economists to analyze its findings. Daniel Sumner, a renowned ag economist from University of California (UC), Davis, and his team dug into the numbers, as did Richard Stup, Senior Extension Associate from Cornell University.
Here are some of the more interesting things they found.
How Growers Use Contract Labor
As labor tightens, growers have increasingly relied on domestic contract labor teams and H-2A, the U.S temporary foreign agricultural worker program. Almost a third (29%) say they’re using contractors, and 22% use the somewhat more expensive H-2A program. The operation size naturally has an impact on whether it uses contract workers. While 29% is the overall average, a full 70% of growers with more than 2,500 acres use contractors. A significant number of growers with fewer than 25 acres, however, use them, too — 19%.
Let’s start with contract labor. Among those growers using contract labor, most (76%) use these workers for harvesting, Stup found. The top six tasks selected span the entire season, from prepping fields to postharvest:
Harvesting (76%)
Planting (52%)
Weeding (40%)
Packing House (32%)
Cultivation (28%)
Irrigation (25%)
How Growers Vet Contractors
Domestic contractors do not have the same regulatory hurdles H-2A does. That begs the question: how do growers find and vet them?
The most common response? Word of mouth, says Hanbin Lee, Post-doctoral Scholar at UC Davis working with Sumner.
And one in six [growers] admit they do not vet their contractors.
About a fourth of all responders cite word of mouth from peers or referrals, Lee found. Only about a tenth of growers say they have internal criteria, including credit reports, insurance, and other background checks.
A small handful play it safe and use only contractors sourced through their state association or cooperative. Several say they use only those contractors they have long experience with.
And one in six admit they do not vet their contractors.
It’s worth noting this is the first year American Vegetable Grower asked this question. When a new question is added, the team makes it an open-ended question in order to gather the full range of possible answers. In future years, those responses will be compiled into a multiple-choice question. Eight-four growers responded to this question and Lee sorted the answers into the mentioned categories.
Is There a Link Between Precision Tools and Contractor Use?
Hiring contractors is costly. Sumner gathered the results for top contract labor tasks and responses to the precision ag tools section of the survey.
When asked what motivated growers to adopt precision ag tools, lack of labor ranked fifth out of 12 options. Production goals of efficiency, crop quality, yields, and conserving water outranked labor. But labor was a stronger motivator than wanting to decrease inputs and boosting food safety recordkeeping, among several other options.
Sumner also flagged the contractor tasks that correspond to automated machinery: Harvesting, weeding, and packing house tasks.
Sumner found the related ag tech usage didn’t rank as high as expected. For example, automated harvesters came in last place among 18 options. Automated weeders and auto sorters/packing machinery (17% each) came in about halfway down the list. Guidance systems, water-related technology, variable rate fertilizer tech, sensors of various types, drones, and yield mapping had more grower use than these three tools.
He then looked at how growers who plan to buy precision ag tools in the future ranked auto harvesters, weeders, and sorters/packers. These growers are not currently using ag tech.
Harvesters, which were last place among those actually using precision tools, shot up to tenth place. Sorters/packers sank to second to last place. Pricey auto weeders rose just a couple slots.
Relationship Between H-2A and Contract Workers
Out of 451 growers responding to questions on using outside workers,180, or 40%, use H-2A and/or contractors.
Cornell’s Richard Stup analyzed the overlap between responses about using H-2A and contract workers:
43, or 24%, use both
79, or 44%, use contractors but do not use H-2A
47, or 26%, use H-2A but do not use contractors
Stup cautions that since H-2A guestworkers are technically contract workers, the 24% using both may have some unintentional duplication, making that figure lower.
JV Smith Companies: Lettuce Thinner
When lettuce thinners first hit the market, JV Smith bought a first-generation version and worked closely with the manufacturer on how to improve it. The operation stuck with it for a couple of years, taking a pass on the second-generation version, before buying the third generation.
Why were they willing to take the financial investment — and risk — that comes with jumping in on the first generation of a complex, tech-heavy machine?
Matt McGuire, Chief Agricultural Officer, says he and the other leaders at JV Smith are trying to solve issues that don’t have solutions. If no one steps up to the plate to help figure it out, the problem will still be there.
For the lettuce thinners, the goal was to reduce the number of crews in the field, lowering the labor need when labor is hard to get. McGuire’s goal was to use four fewer crews.
Today, years down the road, auto-thinners have improved enough that JV Smith uses eight crews for that task that previously needed 20.
Rothert Farm Inc.: Rapid Transplanter
Rothert Farm Inc. (RFI), an Ohio-based grower, also has about 3,000 acres under production in Florida. Jake Rothert, the next generation of the family in line to succeed his father, Trent, runs the Florida division.
“You know, it is expensive, but you’re not having to rely on finding people that are going to want to work,” Jake says.
To improve efficiency and labor pressures, he uses several new technologies. That includes Plant Tape, the transplanter that rapidly deploys seedlings in the field, automated weeders, and drones for beneficial insect application and scouting.
New technology is pricey. So how does RFI afford it?
Take PlantTape, he says.
“What would be a crew of 15 to 18 people, we’re replacing them with three,” Jake says. “It is expensive. But the capital needed to maintain a crew for an 18- to 22-week season is really challenging.”
The same reasoning applies to automated weeding machines. If he can reduce the number of people needed to cultivate a field, it will offset much of the cost.
RFI works closely with the manufacturers, who act as advisors on how to get the most from their technologies. In return, RFI allows them to bring potential clients onto the farm for demonstrations.
Fenton’s Produce: Harvester
Technology isn’t only for large operations. Fenton’s Produce, a 60-acre farm in Upstate New York, is always on the lookout for modern solutions to labor. The owners, Gail and Paul Fenton, scour YouTube, looking for ideas other growers are using that they can adopt.
That’s how the Fentons discovered ASA Lift, based in Denmark.
“We have a couple pieces of their equipment on the farm,” Paul says.
One is a lifter for root crops.
It prevents manually pushing a tool into the soil, possibly loosening the garlic or other root crops enough and snapping them. It also lightens the physical drain of pulling hard.
“It’s just a vibrating knife that’s going under the crop to lift it up, loosen it, and then set it back down. We will then come along and gather up the crops by hand,” Paul says.
“We added it only a year or so ago, so we’re still experimenting with it a little bit,” Gail says.
Another example is a leafy greens planter ideal for small farms from Paperpot Co.
“It is a transplanting system for small, leafy crops that are spaced very close together and that are very labor intensive to plant,” she says.
The Economic Experts
These experts in Ag Economics reviewed the data provided by American Vegetable Grower’s annual State of the Vegetable Industry Survey and provided their perspectives for this report.
Daniel Sumner, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis
Richard Stup, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University
Hanbin Lee, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Davis
