A Possible Farm Labor Solution

The H2A visa program provides skilled agricultural labor to farms that struggle with finding workers

When the farm I work at — BDA Farm in Uniontown, Alabama — decided it wanted to start raising sheep, it initially relied on its existing workforce to do so. Those people were already stretched thin trying to rotationally graze cattle and move layers every day, along with all the other tasks associated with livestock operations — haying, fixing fence, repairing machinery, etc.

The farm came across an unlikely — and fortuitous — solution, though: my husband, Christiaan (please forgive me bragging on him!).

Christiaan grew up on a fourth-generation, 2,000-acre farm in the veld of South Africa. The oldest of four boys, from an early age he regularly skipped doing homework in order to help his father bottle-feed lambs, castrate piglets, and plant crops. His love of farming is infectious, and his skills are numerous.

I don’t have any statistics to prove this, but there are surely very few young people in America who grew up on large-scale sheep farms and who want to continue farming. Christiaan’s unique skillset made him a perfect fit for BDA Farm.

Farmers in North America are more than aware of the scarcity of farm labor. For one thing, the U.S. has historically relied heavily on illegal immigrant workers for seasonal work (an estimated 50 percent of temporary workers don’t have legal status). The number of illegal workers has been declining rapidly, causing a gap in the usual agricultural workforce. 

Another contribution to the farm labor problem is the availability of educational attainment and non-farm jobs. In the past, farm workers generally had lower levels of education and/or lived in places where few other jobs were available. Young people today have many more career options, which leads to migration of the labor force to metro areas. 

None of this is new, and there are many other reasons farmers face seasonal labor shortages; it’s a steady trend of decline that I’m sure you have either experienced or noticed yourself — good labor is just hard to find!

However, as mentioned above, I think there’s at least one solution to the farm labor problem that more U.S. farms should consider: the H2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program.

Christiaan and I have been Temporary Agricultural Workers from South Africa for four and three years, respectively. Our plan was to continue the tradition of taking on his family’s farm in South Africa, but we quickly realized that the economic instability and lack of government support for farmers in South Africa meant that we wouldn’t be able to expand the farm to support our parents (with the younger siblings still in school) and ourselves. 

Knowing we didn’t want to do anything else other than farm, we started researching and looking for “alternative” or “modern” ways to do so. We happened upon the concept of regenerative agriculture, which promised lower input costs with greater long-term effects than our traditional methods. We were intrigued, but we quickly realized that there weren’t many opportunities to learn more about and see regenerative ag in practice in South Africa.

And this is how we ended up in “the middle of nowhere Alabama.” We were provided with an opportunity to learn regenerative ag practices while providing skilled labor to our employers seasonally — at the times they needed help the most — through H2A visas.

An H2A visa provides a foreign national legal status to work seasonally (usually six to ten months) in the U.S. 

While a farmer can take on the paperwork challenge themselves, our experience is in working through a private agency that helps both the farm owners and the foreign laborers wade through the bureaucracy. The agency we worked with actually specializes in H2A workers from South Africa. Working with an agency provides you with the peace of mind that the legal and technical aspects are overseen by experienced personnel (who have the due dates and tricks down to a science). Both ourselves and our employer have felt in each of our applications that we were competently guided through the process by the agency. 

Our visas span from February to December each year. Our employers start their process in November and we start in December — although the period of application is subject to each farm/farmer’s needs, so your timeframe may look different than ours.

Here is what the farm must be able to provide: 

1. Proof that skilled, temporary employees are needed — i.e., your farm’s need cannot be met by your local workforce via permanent employment.
2. Compensation: the state-specific minimum wage.
3. Housing and transportation for the employees during their contract. This is usually more cost-effective if you have multiple H2A employees staying in a single apartment/house.
4. Meals, if a kitchen is unavailable at the employees’ accommodations.
5. Domestic and international travel. Initially, the employee makes these payments, to lower the risk for the farmer (in case the prospective employee doesn’t show), but the farmer then reimburses the employee after an allotted time of employment.

For a full break down of the process, see the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #26: Section H2A of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the USDA’s information on the H2A visa program.

Although there is (as always) a considerable amount of paperwork, and this process does not happen in a snap, it provides many benefits to the farmer: 

1. The H2A employee does not pay any income tax, and therefore the farmer is exempt from Social Security and Medicare tax contributions for that person. 
2. The costs for the application and employment of skilled H2A workers are usually much lower than trying to employ and train unskilled locals.
3. In my experience, and from talking to other South African H2As, I know that the farmer is likely to receive a worker who is committed to the job. Foreign workers have the mentality of “being in the U.S. to work.” Hours worked means hours paid, so they are willing and eager. 
4. No distractions: the H2A employee likely does not have family in the U.S., so the employee’s life while in the states revolves around the farm and working — no arriving late because the kids were sick or taking extended periods of vacation with the family. Although this seems harsh, many South African H2A workers live this way because it’s more feasible financially than farming at home — and they still get to have vacation for the three-month application period each year!
5. The type of H2A applicants the farmer can choose from range between 18 and 55 years of age. The applicants are skilled farmers — most South African H2As grow up on farms in a similar situation as ours and know how to operate and fix farm machinery and handle livestock. I can’t speak for H2As from every country, but all the ones from South Africa will be able to communicate well in English, even though for many it isn’t their native tongue. And they are usually highly motivated — the conversion rate between the dollar and the South African rand makes a minimum wage salary in the U.S. a handsome sum in South Africa!

As I’ve mentioned, the application process may seem daunting at first, but once you’ve gone through it once you’ll quickly realize that it really isn’t the formidable challenge it initially seems.

I obviously cannot speak for everyone’s experience applying for H2A workers, but ours has been better than we hoped for. We get to do what we love and support our family and the farm in South Africa, and we’re confident the farm we work for benefits — they must, since they bring us back every year!

Jamie Steenkamp and her husband, Christiaan, are native South African farmers who work at BDA Farm in Uniontown, Alabama.