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Labor shortage impacts poultry and livestock economies

A Minnesota turkey farmer says the lack of immigration labor reform hinders growth in the poultry and livestock sectors.

John Zimmerman testified at a House Ag Subcommittee hearing on the state of the US livestock and poultry economies earlier this week and says you can’t raise more birds without more people. 

He says that while they’ve increased the use of automation at their facilities – at the end of the day they still need people in the buildings.  “The livestock and poultry industries are different than fruit and vegetable crops in that we need year-round labor,” he says.  “We need that certainty to have those people here all the time.”

He says the current labor laws create additional volatility to the poultry and livestock economies.  “To grow an industry you need inputs,” he says.  “Whether it’s fertilizer feed or whatever.  The input of labor is something we really don’t have control over because of the erratic nature of the laws that affect it.  If there could be more certainty with that input, we could grow more.  Just like if we knew we had the fertilizer to grow more corn we could grow more corn.  It’s no different.”

Earlier this week the Department of Labor recommended changing wage requirements and simplifying the application process for the H-2A program.