On every tour, people ask about our employee and labor situation. Do you have enough and are our people here legally?
We have around 215 full-time employees year-round; some live here on the farm in their own houses, and their children attend local schools and universities around the country. But during our busy summer season, that is not enough help for our farm.
The federal government has a program for farmers called H-2A (and H-2B for other industries). The H-2A program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. The workers can only be in the U.S. for a maximum of 10 months in any given year. This year, Talley Farms will have 110-115 H-2A workers.
Our H-2A employees can only work specifically listed jobs, like harvesting napa cabbage. Many of our workers come from the same town in Mexico each year and are related to our full- time American workers. If they do a good job and are well-received on our farm, they are invited back next year. Talley Farms must provide housing and transportation for these workers.
Each state decides on hourly wages, but many crews are paid even higher using piece rate calculations. Harvest costs account for about 40% of our total growing costs, so it’s necessary to have a reliable and complete workforce throughout the variable seasons. Otherwise, we would not have enough workers throughout the year to grow and harvest our crops.
