Farmers try to find the right employee

Finding the right farm employees and keeping them doesn’t seem to be getting any easier.

This reality isn’t just something Rich Guebert works on when developing policy as the Illinois Farm Bureau president. He also lives it as a farmer.

It’s not a new challenge for him and his son Kyle, who grow corn, soybeans and wheat in Randolph County in southwest Illinois. Kyle also has a small cow-calf herd.

“It’s been ongoing pre-COVID,” Guebert says of labor challenges, but “we’ve been fortunate to have an employee for 43 years.”