Dairy's reliance on immigrants documented

About half of U.S. dairy farms, 47 percent, use immigrant labor in some way, according to a National Milk Producers Federation survey. Survey results project that U.S. dairy farms employ approximately 138,000 full-time equivalent employees and that 57,000 of them or 41 percent are foreign-born. Nearly all, 98 percent, are from Mexico.

Average herd size of the 1,344 farms returning usable surveys was 297 cows. They had an average of 5.6 employees . . . 4 full-time and 1.6 part-time. The research was conducted by Texas AgriLife Research, a part of the Texas A & M system, and was based on surveys from farms with 50 or more cows.

Hourly wages averaged right at $10 ($9.97). However, because of the hours worked, weekly pay averaged $506 which is more than other jobs filled by immigrant workers such as ranch, slaughter, landscape, cashier, crop, and fast food work. With nonwage benefits included , dairy farm employees had annual incomes of around $31,500.

The survey was conducted to assess the economic impact of immigration on U.S. dairy farms. The analysis projected what would happen if our industry lost 50 percent of its immigrant labor force through a change in immigration policy or through some other development. The U.S. dairy herd would drop by 671,000 cows, and there would be 2,622 fewer dairy operations. Retail milk prices would climb by 31 percent, and the total economic impact of the dairy industry, nationwide, would be reduced by $11.2 billion.