Dairy states like California, Idaho, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin are largely responsible for producing the fresh milk, delicious cheeses, and other dairy products that are enjoyed by Americans all over the country. It’s also fair to say that these states can’t be America’s Dairylands without the skilled and essential labor of immigrants.
In the New York Times, Marcela Valdes profiles one such dairy farm in Idaho. “Rosa” starts her work at 4:30 am each morning, on some days ushering thousands of cows into a milking area before many of us have had a chance to pour our first cup of coffee. It can be risky work, too. “April showers and the hooves of roughly 2,000 cows had transformed whole sections of the lots into a slippery goo of dirt, dung and urine,” making it easy for workers to experience a nasty fall (and anyone who’s ever lost their footing knows that terrifying feeling).
“If you don’t know how to skate, you learn here,” Rosa tells her. “This is better than an ice rink.” While she was joking to lighten the mood, workplace hazards are a constant reality for her and other dairy workers. Valdes reports:
Close to the milking parlor, things got tricky. The goo was thicker here, where hundreds of cows passed every hour, and Rosa needed the animals to squeeze together inside a holding area. She stepped in closer to smack haunches, then darted back before the cows turned in response. She was small, and they were huge. Their backs came up to her shoulders — each of them weighed at least 1,000 pounds. There are a lot of ways to get hurt on a dairy farm, and being crushed by cows is one of them. The animals are languid and gentle, but they startle easily. In a panic, they can move fast.
Rosa’s boss, a man named Peter, allowed me to follow her around the dairy because he believes that more people need to understand how economically precarious America’s production of milk has become.
Peter stated in no uncertain terms that without the essential and skilled labor of immigrant workers like Rosa, his business – along with many other dairy and agricultural farms across the United States – could collapse. This would undoubtedly lead to major food shortages that would hurt working people in the pocketbook. “Americans have taken it for granted for generations that milk is cheap and plentiful,” Valdes notes. “Few of them realize that the current political climate around the issue of undocumented immigrants could put that long standing privilege in danger.” She continues:
When I mentioned to Pete Wiersma, the president of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, that I’d read a study predicting that the price of milk would nearly double if foreign-born workers were removed from the industry, he shook his head.
“I don’t think there would be milk,” Wiersma said. “I just don’t think we could get it done.”
It’s a similar story in Wisconsin. “Workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries make up an estimated 70% of the labor force on Wisconsin dairy farms,” the Wisconsin Examiner said. Many are undocumented. Last year, ProPublica reported that one conservative estimate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison estimated that roughly 6,200 workers at larger farms lack legal immigration status. And because the study excluded small farms, the total number could be even higher. “Talk to workers in Wisconsin, and they express little doubt immigrants account for a larger portion of the dairy industry workforce today,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in 2019. In fact, “some farmers say they haven’t encountered a U.S.-born applicant in years.”
Their outsized role in this industry is exemplified by the recent World Dairy Expo in Madison, where organizers offered “programs in Spanish for employees and managers who play a crucial role in the industry,” the Examiner continued:
On Wednesday afternoon Juan Quezada, director of training and development at Milk Source LLC, gave a lecture on leadership entirely in Spanish. (Other Spanish-language sessions this year concerned women in dairy, animal welfare and labor retention.)
The meeting room inside the Alliant Center was full of Latino farm managers, some from as far away as Spain and Ecuador and others from nearby dairy operations in Wisconsin. Outside, the fairgrounds hosted people from 130 countries and more than 2,500 cows, exhibits showing off gleaming farm equipment, and aisles of food vendors.
When it comes to knowledge of the industry, Quezada, an immigrant originally from Mexico, is among the best and most respected among his peers, having worked his way from milker to executive “who has mentored virtually every senior manager” at Milk Source, the National Mastitis Council said last year. His journey to leadership began when an international visitor observed his diligence keeping his worksite clean and offered him a chance to work abroad.
Other immigrant leaders within the industry include Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkey-born businessman and philanthropist who has helped support dairy farmers and created new jobs in several U.S. communities. Chobani currently has two yogurt facilities in Twin Falls, Idaho, Wisconsin State Farmer reported last year:
More than 300 people have been employed at the Twin Falls plant, as production and distribution have already begun on new product innovations. USA TODAY reported that Chobani’s direct and indirect employment in the area support about 7,000 jobs, with the plants employing more than 1,000 workers.
Immigrants have been essential to our economy and with many U.S.-born workers steadily retiring, immigrants will remain critical to our continued growth, the National Foundation For American Policy said in new research. “In each of the past three decades, the foreign born have accounted for more than half of America’s labor force growth,” the study said. “After 2052, immigrant workers will be the only source of U.S. labor force growth.”
“The estimates are consistent with Congressional Budget Office projections that show net immigration will account for all population growth beginning in 2042. Increasing the supply of workers through immigration and temporary work visas will reduce illegal immigration, enhance labor force growth and improve Americans’ daily lives.”
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