1. Parr Rosson, Professor & Head Department of Agricultural Economics Texas A&M University The Role of Immigrant Labor on US Dairy Farms Fanning Lecture Series University of Georgia November 15, 2012

2. Overview Motivations for Study Methods & Results Implications

3. Motivations Over Past 7-8 Years, Increasing Shortages of Labor in Agriculture Construction, Oil/Gas Expansion, Hurricane Relief & Increased Enforcement of Immigration Laws Are Main Reasons Ag & Producer Groups Concerned About Impacts of Labor Losses on Farms & Industries Current Population Survey Estimates 57% of Ag Workforce is Foreign Born Lack of Information Our Profession Has a Role

4. What Was Done? National Mail Survey of 5,005 Dairy Farms in 2008  Random Sample of 715 Farms in 7 Regions  1,344 of 2,071 Returned Surveys Were Analyzed  Flynn Adcock, David Anderson, Dwi Susanto & I Conducted in Analysis Only Farms With Hired Labor Were Analyzed Sample Size Varied by Question

5. Survey Regions

6. Survey Results Farm Structure & Characteristics Hired Labor, Wages & Employee Characteristics Worker Documentation & Enforcement South Is Emphasized

8. Milk Production per Farm 62% of Milk Production from Farms Employing Immigrant Labor

9. Share of Income from Dairy Farm - % of Farms -

10. Employees per Farm 47% of Farms Employed Immigrant Labor

11. Employee Origin & Wages 98% of Immigrant Labor from Mexico 8.7 1.7

12. Non-Wage Benefits

13. Labor Shortages & Turnover 20% of Farms Had Labor Shortage

14. Impacts of Labor Shortages

15. Reactions to Labor Shortages

16. Employee Documents Retained

17. Confidence in Documents 38.4 38.6

18. Concern About ICE Raids 46.6

19. Implications  Immigrant Labor, Especially from Mexico, Is Important to Dairies in the South  Dairies Employing Immigrant Labor Pay Higher Wages  Labor Shortages & Turnover Had Negative Impacts on Some Dairies

20. Implications  Increasing Wages May Not Attract More Labor  Some Farmers Concerned About Documentation  Lack of Immigration Policy Reform May Make Labor Situation Worse

21. Questions? Thanks!! Parr Rosson 979-845-2116 prosson@tamu.edu