By Owen Taylor
Contributing Editor
Guest workers from South Africa fill a labor shortage, says farmer Bill O'Neal (right). (DTN/Progressive Farmer photo by Debra Ferguson)
"Finding anyone to work on a farm now is nearly impossible," says Chuck King. The Kings basically do all the work themselves on a 1,200-acre crop. And compared to cotton, fewer hours are needed per acre for corn. They have one employee but probably wouldn't look for a replacement if he left.
Other producers, though, have come up with alternatives. To ensure he has enough labor in his busiest months, Bill O'Neal brings in guest workers from South Africa -- young farmers picking up extra income during the southern hemisphere's winter.
O'Neal, manager of Allendale Planting Co. in Shelby, Miss., is part of a scattered group of farmers now turning to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for seasonal personnel.
"The labor shortage is serious," says O'Neal, who manages 8,400 acres of row crops and rice. "We wouldn't be bringing in people from that far away if it wasn't."
O'Neal would rather build a core of local, long-term employees, especially since several trusted workers are nearing retirement. Bringing in guest workers requires extensive paperwork, plus hefty travel costs. And a transient worker "never knows the farm as well as a year-round employee," he adds.
Robots in the field may sound like science fiction, but the same was said of GPS guidance and yield mapping in their earliest stages. Autosteering systems make it possible for a driver to cover an entire field without touching the controls.
"With enough sensors to avoid obstacles, a robotic tractor is probably feasible now," says one ag engineer. With the most advanced system, the driver is mainly "an obstacle-avoidance sensor," he adds.
Several implements are being developed to ease the workload on producers. Despite its price, the self-moduling cotton picker has a future because fewer people are available to pull boll buggies and operate module builders. The University of Florida is in the early stages of developing a fully automated citrus-picking system, and California citrus growers are funding similar research. And in Japan, more than 1,000 robotic helicopters have been sold for aerial application work, mainly over rice.
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