Reading Time: < 1 minute Sacramento | Reuters — California will become the first U.S. state to require farmers to pay overtime to field workers and fruit pickers under a bill signed Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. The bill would phase in overtime pay for farmworkers from 2019 to 2022. In an industry where a workweek during the harvest […] Read more
California first state to promise overtime to farmworkers
A farm for all
For the Burns family, the goal has always been a farm with a place for the entire family. Now it’s the reality too
Reading Time: 5 minutes John Burns had spent eight years getting a PhD in chemistry and two years working at the Department of National Defence in Kingston, Ont., but his Saskatchewan farm roots began to beckon and he jumped at the chance to get out of the lab and do some off-campus teaching, which led him to the area […] Read more
It’s their job
More farmers like John and Kristi Burns have family and non-family members working side by side, making it vital to set clear job expectations
Reading Time: 8 minutes Job descriptions for new farm employees help them understand how the farm operates, what their job is all about, and what the employer expects of them. But family members working on the farm often think they don’t need one for themselves. They’ve been on the farm forever, after all, so they already know what to […] Read more
Profit by putting people first
Attracting and retaining good workers on your farm doesn’t just happen — you have to make it happen
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you don’t have people, you don’t have a farm. It’s as simple as that. While most producers think about their farm in terms of their livestock and crops, they neglect to think about the people, says a rural business specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. But that needs to change, Abby Verstraete told attendees […] Read more
Globalized economy seen more susceptible to weather extremes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Barcelona | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The globalization of the world’s economy this century has made it far more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather, including heat stress on workers, scientists said Friday. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University showed production losses caused by high temperatures, predicted […] Read more
Farming. It’s more than a job
Human Resources: When a young employee left their farm to look for a job that could become a career, Kris Mayerle asked, ‘Why can’t that be here?’
Reading Time: 4 minutes At the edge of the boreal forest in northeast Saskatchewan, the Mayerle family hires 13 full and seasonal employees for their 21,000-acre farm, seed processing plant and custom harvesting business. One of their employees is in his 43rd year with the company, another is going on 18 years, and many others have been there more […] Read more
Where are the workers needed on farms?
Nine per cent of on-farm jobs are unfilled. Employees are scarce, and it’s going to get worse
Reading Time: 2 minutes Traditionally, farms used family, friends and neighbours to supply labour. However, as family size and rural population has shrunk, and as the size of the average farm has increased, our reliance on hired employees has multiplied. Today, farms often employ and manage a handful of people, and it’s also not uncommon for those employees to […] Read more
Obama to offer deportation relief to 250,000 farm workers, union says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Barack Obama’s immigration reforms would lift the threat of deportation for at least 250,000 undocumented people who work on U.S. farms, Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers union, said Wednesday after meeting with Obama. “We were pleased to learn from the president today that at least 250,000 […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
