New labor rule increases regulatory pressure on farmers

May 01, 2024

By: Farms.com

The agriculture sector faces new challenges as the Department of Labor has introduced a substantial regulatory update affecting farmers and ranchers. This new rule, linked to the H-2A visa program, significantly increases the compliance burden on agricultural employees.

Farmers are expressing concerns over the rule's broad scope and the ambiguous language, which may lead to higher operational costs. The regulation is perceived as overly punitive, with an approach that seems to presume guilt over compliance failures, rather than providing guidance or support to farm owners.

The introduction of this rule is part of a larger trend where agricultural employees have encountered nearly 3,000 pages of new regulations over the last 18 months. These regulations are not just extensive but also complex, requiring legal expertise to understand and implement, further adding to the financial strain on farmers.

This increase in regulatory demands comes at a time when farmers already face many challenges managing their operations, particularly regarding maintaining a stable and reliable workforce. The new rule threatens to complicate this further, potentially impacting the agricultural economy significantly.

Industry leaders are encouraging farmers and ranchers to reach out to their elected representatives to express their concerns about the new regulations. They emphasize the importance of a supportive legislative environment that allows farmers to thrive while still ensuring fair and safe working conditions for all employees.

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.