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MSU encourages dairy farms to boost workforce development amid ongoing labor shortages

An extension educator is encouraging farmers to implement workforce development programs as labor shortages continue.

Michigan State University’s Martin Carrasquillo Mangual helps present entry level trainings for dairy farms.

“Often workers are coming from different places,” he shares. “Not often do they have a rural background, not necessarily do they have an animal background, so that presents another set of challenges, because right now you’re trying to get whoever wants to work hired.”

Recent MSU research finds dairy farms across Michigan and Ohio can replace about a third of their workforce on average each year.

Mangual tells Brownfield, “Some farms are trying to see how they can face that with technology, for example.”

“But, it’s not a tool that is valuable for every single farm to put robots,” he shares. “We still rely on labor, manual labor, in most of the farms as well.”

He says increased immigration enforcement has made a noticeable impact on worker morale.

“In some farms, we have seen how the environment or the morale has changed a little bit,” he says. “There’s a certain uncertainty on the part of workers where we can see a bit more reservation sometimes, not necessarily in most farms.”

Mangual says MSUE offers several trainings which can help workers be more prepared and, as a result, become more motivated, better performers, and likely to stay longer at their place of employment.

MSUE has also been working with farm employers and employees on how to better prepare for audits and connect with needed resources.

The National Milk Producers Federation estimates dairy farms that employ immigrant labor produce nearly 80 percent of the nation’s milk supply, and eliminating that workforce would raise U.S. retail milk prices by nearly 90 percent.

Brownfield interviewed Mangual during the recent Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Mount Pleasant.