The purpose of this study is to gather information from fruit, vegetable and dairy farm employers regarding agricultural workforce issues in New York agriculture. The survey provides new insights into five key topic areas; the number of workers on New York farms, employee wages and benefits,...

The purpose of this study is to gather information from farm operators regarding agricultural workforce issues in New York agriculture. In the fall of 2007 the USDANASS New York field office agreed to add one page of agricultural labor related questions to its annual surveys of the New York...

As small finns grow from employing just a few people to employing 10 or more, there is an increasing need for more fonnalized human resource management practices. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent managers of florist crop production finns used formalized human resource...

New York State is the third largest dairy state in the United States based on milk production (behind California and Wisconsin). Since the mid-1990’s, the trend toward hiring Hispanic workers on New York’s larger dairy farms (usually 400 cows or more) has steadily increased and currently the...

As economies of size become fundamentally important in production agriculture, farm sizes continually increase. For dairy producers, this results in larger herds, more acres of crop production, and more full-time, non-owner employees, which result in more human resource management concerns....

Many florist crop producers have reported difficulty with attracting qualified employees to positions within their businesses. The purpose of this study was to define the difficulties florist crop producers face in attracting qualified workers. Managers of 72 florist crop production firms in...

Electric utilities throughout the Nation are experimenting with strategies to reduce total electricity consumption or to alter the timing of electrical power use by their customers. This report focuses on one such strategy, time-of-use (TaU) electric rates, and the likely effect of this pricing...

Focus groups were held to provide more in-depth information on issues raised by a largescale survey of agricultural exporters conducted in 1994 by USDA. Two focus groups were held in New York State and two in California, and the total of 28 participants included both experienced and new...

Consuming locally produced foods offers many benefits to consumers, producers and the environment. As a result, local food economies are gaining attention as a means for boosting agriculture and food production in New York State. Concurrent with this interest in local agriculture is a national...