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Dairy cooperative hopes labor bill passes lame-duck Congress session

A dairy organization would like to see Congress take action on legislation they say would help with the on-farm labor shortage.  Brody Stapel is the President of Edge Dairy Farmers Cooperative.  He tells Brownfield the labor problem has been discussed for many years but has never been solved. “You know, we’re coming to the end of the Congressional session here again and we still don’t have our Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed through, so we’re hopeful now that we’re in the lame duck that we can maybe get something through.”

Stapel says Congress needs to realize the seasonal H2-A program is not the solution for a year-round agribusiness like a dairy farm. “We can’t turn the cows off in September and fire them back up in January.”

Stapel says Edge’s legislative team is again making a push for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act before the new Congress takes over. “We’ve got a great team that works down in D.C. and we’ll continue to bring the voice of milk down there and see what we can get done here.”

Stapel spoke to Brownfield during Trade Talk at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention in Kansas City last week.

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