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Labor top concern for farms in 2025

A farm bureau official says labor is the top issue farms are struggling with in the New Year.

Great Lakes Ag Labor Services General Manager and Michigan Farm Bureau’s Director of Business Operations Sarah Black tells Brownfield, “That’s not just farms that are using temporary seasonal guest worker labor through the H-2A program.”

“It’s just labor in general,” she shares. “There are so many pinch points when it comes to the daily operations of a business and on a farm is no different. Farms can’t operate if they don’t have a workforce.”

She says more than 96 percent of farms in the U.S. are operated by families, but management has become much more complicated.

“You’re going to have multiple generations working together and in a lot of those farms, you’re going to also have hired employees, she explains. “There are a lot of topics as it relates to payroll and benefits and even just regulatory changes that have come down the pike in the last 12 months that employers need to be aware of.”

She points to audit preparedness as one example.

“If someone from the Department of Labor or another agency shows up for an audit, you need to have a plan ready to go because you don’t know when that’s going to happen,” she says. “I think there are a lot of practical steps that any farm should have ready and needs to be thinking about.”

Black will be joining agricultural lawyers from Michigan for Farm Employment Seminars this month to support businesses through legal, regulatory, and legislative changes like the state’s Paid Sick Time Act which takes effect in February.

Black says farmers should also be prepared for the possibility of labor issues drastically changing at the state and federal level over the next few weeks with new administrations coming into power.