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Illinois farmer sourcing foreign workers to fill labor gap

An Illinois pork producer and grain farmer is sourcing foreign workers to help fill the labor shortage.

Chad Leman of Eureka tell Brownfield agriculture is taking one of the hardest hits. “Many other businesses have the capacity to go remote or virtual. You can’t do that on a farm. These pigs don’t take holidays or weekends. Somebody has to be in a barn taking care of pigs.”

He says their employees come through a TN visa, and while there is a language barrier to overcome but, “Nonetheless, you have young men and women who are eager to improve their livelihoods and so they are willing to work and they enjoy their work.”

He says a big concern on the labor front is that more and more people are leaving the state of Illinois.

“If you don’t have people wanting to live in your state, they sure aren’t going to want to come work on your farm. I don’t know what the solution is, but we need to work with our legislators to try and help them understand how we can make it more attractive and inviting for people to come to Illinois.”

He says sadly, as each generation becomes further removed from the farm, interest in farming as an occupation seems to decrease.

Lamen was recently elected President of the Illinois Pork Producers Association.

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