While not all South Dakota dairies may not be feeling the pinch of stricter immigration enforcement yet, one producer said it’s coming.
At a Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary meeting, some stakeholders from the state’s dairy industry discussed current and future issues of the industry. One of those topics included immigration. The dairy industry is known to employ higher clips of non-U.S.-citizens than some other industries due to the job’s physical demand.
Tim den Dulk owns three dairies and a milk condensing plant in the state. He told the audience it’s hard to find labor for dairy.
“We could pay some people $35, $40 an hour to milk the cow, and I still don’t think we would get them to be milkers for a 12-hour shift five to six days a week,” den Dulk said.
He said his operation uses employees on TN visas. Those allow Canadian and Mexican immigrants to work in the U.S. under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement for up to three years.
"So far, it's been good. We have not seen the workflow or employee flow slow down," den Dulk said. "But we expect that to happen in the next five years. We expect [it] to be extremely difficult to find employees, especially if we don't allow more laborers in."
South Dakota’s dairy industry hasn’t been immune to stricter immigration enforcement. South Dakota Searchlight reported that Drumgoon Dairy near Lake Norden had been audited by the Department of Homeland Security in early October. That led to the dairy losing over half its employees.
On the cheese-side of dairy, one of South Dakota’s major cheese-producing companies said it’s not currently feeling huge impacts. Bel Brands in Brookings is in the process of doubling its cheese capacity. Jake Anderson is the Plant Director of the Brookings Plant.
"We are well aware that 150 new employees is a pretty significant number for the community of Brookings,” Anderson said. “But we’ve already laid some building blocks to really help us become the employer of choice.”
He said that, among other things, includes increased wages. However, Anderson acknowledged the current challenges for the dairy industry.
“So right now, we don’t have an issue staffing our plant. Certainly, it is something we do need to keep an eye on. It is certainly the talk of a lot of organizations and what does the future look like," Anderson said. "At Bel, we’re very confident to continue to put ourselves at a high level and be the employer of choice in the community.”
According to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the state’s dairy industry generates $7.2 billion in total economic output every year.
