'Family Farm Relief Bill' could help local dairy farmers

Finding workers who are willing to show up at 4:30 a.m. and work for more than 12 hours a day for minimum wage is not easy.In fact, it’s almost impossible to find Americans who will do the job, say many dairy farmers in Washington County.But foreigners are not allowed to have a work visa for year-round agricultural work. That means dairy and meat farmers often hire workers who do not have authorization to work here. New York's U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, is proposing to change that by making the H-2A visa a three-year visa for year-round agricultural workers. As part of the proposed Family Farm Relief Act of 2017, farmers would also no longer have to advertise for local workers before applying for visas, nor would they have to complete a “prevailing practices” survey of employment practices in the area. The requirement to hire any qualified American who applies through the first half of the work period would also be abolished, and farmers would no longer have to offer the job first to the foreign workers who worked for them in previous years. Workers would have to leave the country for three months after their three years were up, and could then return on another H-2A visa.Farmers are enthusiastic about the proposals, but many were hesitant to discuss the matter on the record since they use foreign labor now.Some farmers try to make ends meet with a small farm instead. The year-round work becomes a family’s mission.If the farm grows beyond what the family can manage, they often turn to foreign workers.