Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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been able to grow onions well. I think we could always be fairly competitive
on onions.” But as agribusiness becomes increasingly involved in organic
production and sales, the smaller, diversified farms may find it difficult to
compete.
Phil and his employees work hard to maintain this complex and multi-
faceted cropping and marketing system. “My wife works about a quarter of
the time. Terence is full time on a salary, and Robin, our second salesperson,
works year-round, but is not full time year-round. One employee that has
been with me since the late eighties is now on salary, Efrain. He is pretty
much our foreman for the main two hundred acre ranch. He lives on the
ranch. He is integral in our whole operation. He is really a key employee. It
varies a little, winter to winter, but we usually have all the full-time work for
the winter either live here year-round or want to stay here for the winter.
That could be anywhere from twelve to eighteen people. And our field crew
for the busy season probably goes up to thirty people, and even at that we
have a two-month period in which we utilize a labor contractor and have
another eight to ten people who end up working full time for those few
months. Those months are August, September, and October. Our wage rate
is $8.25 an hour up to $10 an hour [in 2004]. So we have really tried to
keep our wages as competitive as we can. The job on a farm is a hard job,
working ten hours a day, six days a week, sometimes a little bit longer. At
least we have diverse jobs. It is not like someone is hoeing weeds all day
long. Somebody might be picking one type of crop for a few hours and then
switch to another crop. They may be helping irrigation for a few hours;
they may be weeding for a few hours. We have jobs in the shop packing and
then tractor driving jobs. At least the work varies. It is not so tedious. Even
though it is hard work, there is variety to it. And then the men that work
on the ranch, a lot of them know each other; they have been working with
each other for a while. So there is a good working relationship among the
men on the ranch.”
Phil feels that a great deal of his success is because of his employees. “We
really have a core of people who have worked steady for us for a number
of years, so they know all the jobs. Then over the years as we have needed
people we have addedmore people and those have become more permanent
employees. Maybe they go to Mexico for three months in the winter, but
their jobs are waiting for them when they get back. And we have been able
to pay . . . well, the people that work on the farm aren't compensated nearly
enough for what they do, but it's as well as we can do. We have been able to
slowly increase their hourly wage. We try to give cash bonuses. We have a
health insurance plan for the workers and their families if they live here. And
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