April 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
3
Study: Fewer farmworkers migrate, aggravating labor shortage
Several factors
contribute to
reduced migration
among workers
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Dan Wheat/Capital Press file
Workers prune apple trees in East Wenatchee, Wash. A new study
has found that many farmworkers are less likely to migrate from job
to job.
The agricultural labor
shortage has less to do with
the shrinking population of
farmworkers than with its
changing work habits, a new
economic study found.
Since the late 1990s, the
proportion of farmworkers
who regularly migrate from
place to place has decreased
from about 50 percent to less
than 20 percent, said Mao-
yong Fan, an economist at
Ball State University and the
study’s lead author.
“The key problem is not
that we have an absolute
smaller number of farmwork-
ers, the key problem is they’re
not willing to move to take
multiple jobs,” Fan said.
While the farmworker
population dropped about 9
percent during the time pe-
riod Fan studied, more than
1 million remain in the in-
dustry.
“It’s not a dramatic de-
crease that would cause this
labor shortage,” he said.
The percentage of migrat-
ing farmworkers remained
stable through the 1990s but
has declined significantly
since the turn of the century,
partly due to more vigorous
border enforcement since the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, Fan said.
“I was shocked by the
magnitude of the decrease,”
he said.
Farmworkers are less like-
ly to travel between the U.S.
and Mexico due to stricter en-
forcement, but that’s not the
only reason for the shift, Fan
said.
Mexico’s birthrate has fall-
en, so fewer young workers
are available, while the coun-
try’s economic situation has
improved, reducing many cit-
izens’ willingness to migrate,
he said.
Immigrants already liv-
ing in the U.S. have formed
stronger social networks, so
they can help new arrivals
find work without using agri-
culture as a “stepping stone,”
he said. “They can find jobs
in the city. Agriculture is by-
passed now.”
The study also noted
changes in the demograph-
ic makeup of farmworkers.
They’re now more likely to
be older, more experienced
and living in homes with their
immediate families, none of
which contributes to their
willingness to migrate.
Dan Fazio, executive di-
rector of the WAFLA agricul-
tural labor organization, said
the study is “absolutely con-
sistent with what we’ve seen
in the field.”
Many farmworkers tradi-
tionally earned enough money
during the growing season to
return to Mexico for the win-
ter, Fazio said.
As the border became
more difficult to cross,
they’ve stayed within the U.S.
and acquired year-round jobs
to sustain themselves, he said.
“Now seasonal agricultural
work is a lot less attractive.”
Farmers have responded
by growing multiple crops
that are harvested in succes-
sion, allowing them to retain
farmworkers for longer peri-
ods, Fazio said.
They’ve further stretched
out the growing season with
fruit cultivars that ripen ear-
lier and later than the normal
season, he said.
Fan said it’s probable that
the phenomenon of farmers
retaining workers has contrib-
uted to their reduced willing-
ness to migrate.
While an economist’s typi-
cal solution to labor shortages
in an industry is higher wag-
es, growers would argue that
profits are too thin to make
such increases possible, he
said.
Expanding the H-2A guest
worker visa program would
alleviate the tight labor mar-
ket, Fan said. “If we can make
that easier, it’s a better solu-
tion for this labor shortage
problem.”
Idaho delivers more equipment to five
Rangeland Fire Protection Associations
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Oregon State University wheat breeder Robert Zemetra, right,
makes a point during an Oregon Wheat Commission tour April 25.
Wheat commission considers
budget, research funding
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Rancher Michael Guerry explains to the media April 25 how wildland firefighting equipment provided by
the Idaho Department of Lands will benefit the state’s Rangeland Fire Protection Associations.
wildland firefighting force
in Idaho and we are very
pleased to be able to add to
their capacity today by pro-
viding this equipment,” she
said.
Idaho’s six RFPAs have
around 300 members, most-
ly ranchers. Together, they
provide primary protection
on 1.4 million acres of private
land and secondary protection
on 6.3 million acres of federal
and state land.
They assisted the state and
BLM on 31 wildland fires
last year and in many cases
provided quick, initial attack,
Sullens said.
“The response time is the
key and where we are out
there already, we can get there
so much faster and stop them
before they get big,” said
rancher David Rutan, a mem-
ber of the Owyhee RFPA.
Guerry said the RFPAs
have been a blessing to many
ranchers, including himself,
who were almost burned out
dealing with the large num-
ber of wildland fires in south-
western Idaho, which has had
more repeat fires in the past
four decades than any other
region in the country.
“It’s made my operation
feasible,” Guerry said of the
association’s effectiveness.
Sullens said ranchers fight-
ing fires is not a new concept
because they have been doing
that for generations.
“Forming an association
where they are working col-
laboratively together with
the IDL and BLM, with the
same training and same gear,
that’s the new concept in Ida-
ho,” she said. “They know the
ground in and out and they
provide valuable information.
The knowledge that they have
is a huge benefit.”
Lawsuit over Oregon wolf delisting ruled ‘moot’
Capital Press
An environmentalist legal
challenge against Oregon’s
decision to remove wolves
from the state’s endangered
species list has been dismissed
due to legislation passed earli-
er this year.
Wolves were delisted by
state wildlife regulators last
year, but three environmen-
tal groups — Cascadia Wild-
lands, Center for Biological
Diversity and Oregon Wild
— asked the Oregon Court of
Appeals to reverse that deci-
sion, claiming it wasn’t based
on sound science.
Earlier this year, lawmak-
ers passed House Bill 4040,
which held that the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life had followed the law in
delisting wolves.
Opponents of the bill
claimed it would deny the en-
vironmentalists their day in
court. Supporters, on the other
hand, argued the lawsuit was
filed to pressure wildlife reg-
ulators while Oregon’s wolf
recovery plan is updated.
Gov. Kate Brown signed
the bill in March despite envi-
ronmentalist calls for a veto,
stating in a signing letter that
the “trajectory of wolf pop-
ulations in Oregon remains
strong.”
The legislation was ex-
pected to nullify the legal
challenge, which proved cor-
rect — on April 22, the Or-
egon Court of Appeals held
that HB 4040 rendered the en-
vironmentalist petition moot.
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By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Decreasing wheat acre-
age over the past couple
years poses some complica-
tions for the Oregon Wheat
Commission as it puts to-
gether its 2016-17 budget.
Meeting at Oregon State
University’s Hyslop Farm
on April 25, commission
members approved a pro-
posed budget that attempts
to balance research funding
requests with crop assess-
ment projections. The com-
mission will adopt a final
budget before the start of
the fiscal year July 1.
Commission CEO Blake
Rowe said revenue from as-
sessments — a fee collected
at the time of a wheat crop’s
first sale — is projected at
$1.85 million in the coming
fiscal year. The projection
is derived from USDA Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service acreage estimates
and yield averages.
Rowe said the average
annual revenue from as-
sessments is $2.2 million.
Meanwhile, research fund-
ing requests for the coming
fiscal year topped $2.6 mil-
lion, Rowe said.
“What do you fund ver-
sus what do you cut?” he
said. “It puts more pressure
on the commission to adjust
funding.”
The commission careful-
ly built up its reserve fund
over time, but operates un-
der rules that require spend-
ing down reserves when
they reach a certain level.
The commission is most
likely looking at a $2.2 mil-
lion budget, he said.
The reserve spending
rules come from wheat
farmers who “want us to use
grower dollars for grower
purposes,” Rowe said.
Wheat acreage is down
in part because some Wil-
lamette Valley growers
have returned to planting
grass seed after giving it up
when the market plummet-
ed. Grass seed markets are
closely tied to housing and
other development, which
stalled during the recession.
“The demand for grass
seed really fell through the
floor,” Rowe said. “We saw
a number of grass seed acres
shift over to wheat. Now
we’ve seen some go back to
grass seed.”
Wheat acreage fluctu-
ation is not unusual. Ore-
gon growers planted about
965,000 acres in 2010, but
harvested acreage dropped
to 868,000 acres in 2013
and 818,000 acres in 2014,
according to the National
Agricultural Statistics Ser-
vice.
In other business, com-
mission members toured
OSU facilities. Among oth-
er things, they saw a com-
bine and seed drill scaled
for work on research plots.
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BOISE — The Idaho De-
partment of Lands delivered
four wildland firefighting
engines and five “slip-in”
units to five of the state’s six
Rangeland Fire Protection As-
sociations April 25.
The type 6 engines are
light, mobile four-wheel drive
vehicles that can hold 300 gal-
lons of water.
The slip-in units can be
placed on a pickup or flatbed
truck and consist of a water
tank, pump and hose reel and
hold 75-300 gallons of water.
Idaho’s RFPAs were
formed in 2013 by ranchers,
who are trained by the federal
Bureau of Land Management
and assist federal and state
agencies in fighting wildfires.
RFPA members use their
own equipment, but the ad-
dition of these new engines
and slip-in units will signifi-
cantly boost their capacity,
said Castleford rancher Mi-
chael Guerry, chairman of the
Three Creek RFPA.
“A well-equipped engine
like this will be very benefi-
cial to us from a standpoint
of early response,” he said
shortly before RFPA mem-
bers were given a basic over-
view of the equipment by IDL
mechanics and operators.
IDL previously delivered
four large water hauling ten-
ders to two RFPAs.
IDL purchased some of
the equipment through with
state general fund dollars
and grant funding from the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,
and acquired some through
the Federal Excess Personal
Property program.
Julia Sullens, the IDL’s
liaison to the RFPAs, said
they have greatly benefited
Idaho’s wildland firefighting
capabilities, in part because
they know the land and also
because they can more quick-
ly respond to many fires.
“The RFPAs add incredi-
ble capacity and benefit to the