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SW “Ohia” | Canderson012,
Frankly, wages for farm labor are terrible, and work is inconsistent, at least "here."
I'm a younger guy, and I do my fair share of labor for several local farmers. Stack around 10,000 small squares a year and log in the winter. Work in the veggie patch too for the same guy. That is in addition to keeping my own grain & livestock going and doing a lot of work with Dad and his cow/calf/hay operation. Senior in college.
"Hard" farm work pays $10/hour here. Skidding logs, stacking small squares, pulling weeds, picking vegetables/sweet corn, etc. My dad made the same money when he stacked hay for the local dairy in the late-1970's. Adjusted to match buying power, that is $36.31/hour. Bet you could get workers with that wage.
Minimum wage is around $8.50. Working in the A/C is worth that lost $1.50 to most younger people. Working your rear end off needs an appropriate dollar value to make it worth while. Then many are busy keeping grades and such up for college applications, or are dedicated to a sport that takes 80% of their free time outside of school.
Nobody is doing farm labor for a living, or if they are, it is full-time consistent. People don't sit around waiting for a call to come pick sticks or throw bales. A full-time job, or High School, or college is taking a lot of time. The people willing to work are already working. We had this trouble when we still raised tobacco. Two weeks of chopping a year isn't going to make a living, and the guys that used to do it could work a weekend of overtime at their normal jobs to make the same money, and not do the worst task known to man.
I try to run everything as a one-man show, and it can take some time, but I think it is necessary. The only job that I need labor on is small squares, and I can get Dad or my brother to help. If they weren't around, I would look into investing in an accumulator or bale wagon. | |
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Shortage of Manual Labor
