Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa US Work Opportunity for African Farmer

The labor situation is one reason that many small businesses fail, and most farms fall into that category. Tobacco is one of the main cash crops around here. I grew it from 1973 to 2001 myself, so I know a little about it. Tobacco is a labor intensive crop, with most of the work being done by hand. When I first started growing it, labor was plentiful. There were plenty of folks, young and old, Black and White, who wanted to work. As the years passed, the labor pool dried up, as the older ones became unable to work and the younger ones found easier jobs. But, perhaps the biggest factor was that most of the farm laborers had always fell into the category of "poor people", and as welfare and food stamps became commonplace, many of them found it easier to draw benefits rather than work for a living. That led to Mexicans being brought in to work in the tobacco crop. Today, every farmer that I know who grows tobacco uses Mexican labor. They come here under work visas, and are paid somewhere in $11-$12 range for their labor, plus furnished with housing and transportation to and from work. Most farmers tell me that to avoid all the paperwork, and inspections from the feds, they would gladly hire Americans.....if they could find that many willing to work.

"Not everyone is on meth or an drunk."

But there are a ton of people who are.

I talked jobs with a Union Tank supervisor. He said he had guys who could weld, guys who could read a blue print, not many who could do both. And not many who could pee clean in a cup.

We have warm bodies, not much of a labor force.

Unfortunately.

As things heat up in Africa, there may be a bunch of non-indigenous types who would like a new start.

Those kinda folks are generally motivated to make a new life for themselves and do well.

DF

I'm a farmer. I've tried to hire "American" with varied success. Seems that some Americans would rather live on the Gov dole than do a difficult and dirty job. And I'm tired about hearing about a living wage - as a farmer I can only pray to have something left over after I pay expenses. Sometimes I do better than others but there are NO guarantees in agriculture.
If you believe that we should only hire American, try to get this passed. Limit time spent on welfare to 6 mos. 6 mos is long enough to pack up and move out of the inner city to places that have actual jobs. I understand they prefer not to move but this country was founded by immigrants that packed up and moved to where the work was instead of whining about how they are misunderstood and discriminated against. It is exactly what the Hispanic (and South African) workers are doing today.

And add unemployment to that list. I think people are still on the Obama 99 week plan. It's funny, every time I go to try to hire someone, I always get the applicant that's been out of work for .............you guessed it...............99 weeks. These are the guys I refuse to hire. Lazy pieces of crap.

The other thing that needs to change are the taxes. If they would cut our taxes, we could afford to pay Americans more for the job. But unfortunately, every 3 months, as soon as my cash starts looking good, the government takes it all. I can't get ahead, I can't pay my guys more, and I can't hire more people and grow my company.

The government is the root of our employment problems.

I have a cousin that has been in the custom wheat harvesting business for over 30 years. He cuts from Texas to North Dakota. Home is NW Kansas. The season runs from May-Sept. He used to be able to hire Americans, they are no longer available. It used to be a job for mostly High school and college kids. Now they don't want to do it. For over 10 years he has been hiring his help from South Africa, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and Ireland. He would love to hire American but can't find enough good ones to fill his needs. Most of the South Africans are farmers themselves. They say the can make enough here to keep them going at home for another year. There are a lot of South Africans working around here for local farmers during the summer and fall. They are unable to hire local workers. We have had South Africans working around here for over 20 years.

Same here in Tx. one of the biggest wheat and cotton combining crews is all SA. They have banks of bright lights on the combines and work night and day especially if rain is forecast. They follow the crops all the way into Canada. Farmers would be hard pressed to find crews like this if the African crews weren't available.

How many young people do you actually know who have turned to crime when their quest for a well paying white collar career doesn't come through?

Well, let me say this about small scale farming, Its a lot like shooting craps, but theres a lot of work involved. Large scale frmers face a lot of the same issues but should be diversified enough to survive many stumbling blocks.Im a hobby farmer with 45 acres in row crops and 15 in pasture. If I could expand that 20 or 30 fold I could probably earn a decent living ------most years. Generally the more labor intense farming gets the more volatile the market gets.
Any how, I wanted to voice an opinion on the lack of labor for farming, auto mechanics, welding, goes on and on. One of the biggest problems we as Americans have is that our standard of living has become too high and people can live at or above the standard that I grew up with in the 40s, 50s and 60s. When I was a litle kid a trip to town was a once every one to 2 week trip. The first official job I had was a $ an hour. Moved up in the world the next year to 2$ an hour!!!. Supported a car and all the other bad habits of a teenager. My family over the first 10 or 12 years of my life had one car, not new. Ready for this one of the newest one was a Kaiser-Frazer 3 door. It was 2 years old when we got it. My father was a production mechanical engineer so we were better off than most people. I never saw or heard of any starvation at school or in any other context. People less well to do still usually had one car, maybe 2 depending on the age of still at home children and most owned their own homes. .People usually replied to want adds to the point they werent in the paper very long.
Today it seems entitlement folk have a higher standard of living than working class people of my youth and if they choose to extend it there seems to be little to prevent that. Further when we have large numbers of young high energy people with nothing except video games to occupy their attention, drugs and crime dont lag far behind.
Conclusion our financial, economic system is deranged and needs major adjustments. Unfortunately we are not going to do this voluntarily although we almost got there in '09. When people have to work for a living because there is no better(?) alternative then the "living wage"becomes a real concept. The people making one or 2 dollars an hour didnt live lavishly but they lived reasonably well with a 12" black and white TV. They went to the $0.25 movies once or twice a month. (10 cents at my age). I had 2 pairs of shoes old pair(getting too small) for work and new pair for school. Side tracked. We need to make the job market more attractive by making the differential between entitlement and paid wages wider. I dont think the way to do this is to increase minimum wages but rather to make the guaranteed handoud lower and less desireable. Like any major medicalm change there will be side effects.

One of my SILs is a medium sized farm and ranch operator. He and his dad were partners. The dad lost a long battle to cancer this spring. They had one full time employee, a guy about 70. They had plenty of tractors and machinery to do the job. For several years I have helped with harvests, but health limits my abilities. SIL needs A full time employee. He would furnish housing and utilities, pay a salary, and pay a bonus based upon yield. First candidate dropped out on drugs. Second got in jail for stealing checks from the office and forgery (not to mention the hunting equipment that disappeared from my Mule and trailer).

Meanwhile in the city, I shop a grocery that has cheaper and usually better produce and staples than Wally World. A lot of their customers pay with government credit cards. While the women shop, her stud is generally sitting in the car, running the AC/heat in their newish BMW or Lexus, playing with his government paid for phone. All the time living in subsidized or free housing. Why work?

I am amused at the Liberty Mutual TV ad that promotes the insurance company rescuing the kid with a flat tire. Mom is so proud that her snow flake was rescued. When my youngest daughter got her unrestricted license, she and her friend who had not yet got his wanted to go to a game together. Daughter was the driver. I had insisted that she demonstrate her ability to change a tire before she was allowed to leave the house without a parent. This demo was cutting kick off close, so the other kids parents brought him to the house for a quicker escape. I think the other mom thought me harsh, but the dad agreed that was part of driver training to know where and how to use the jack and lug wrench.

I grew up on a farm, but spent a career in the state troopers. As a lieutenant, I was in charge of recruitment. I used to ask applicants if they had ever dug a post hole. Many would respond negative, but they had dug a ditch, planted trees, mowed yards, worked in an ice house, or had done some other hard work in high school or college. Those guys knew the difference between a job and "work" and tended to be better hands. As a commander, I generally had a final say about hiring. I had a pretty good track record.

Another poster or two have nailed it. We have to stop selling votes by making things too easy for the lazy and addicts. Make working rewarding. My other SIL owns a business. A few years back, when $10 was the goal for the career minimum wage types, he said some of his people were not worth that amount, but the ones that were were making more, some much more, and the top producers were getting benefits. My oldest daughter, his wife, owns a real estate company. There, the apostle Paul's advice is in full play. "He (or she) who will not work, shall not eat."

BTW, we have a goodly number of displaced RSA dairymen making new lives in nearby dairy country. Not just hands, but owner operators. Good on them!

Jack