MUSKEGON (Michigan) CHRONICLE

September 13, 2009

Unemployed finding work on farms

by Heather Lynn Peters | Muskegon Chronicle

Brian Wallington has become the new face of Oceana County's agricultural labor force.

Laid off last spring from his previous job as a construction worker, the 42-year-old Pentwater resident started over as a farm hand, learning a new trade and working longer hours for less pay.

"There's nothing out there right now, and I don't think there is going to be for a while," he said of construction jobs.

Wallington is one in a growing number of Oceana County men in their 30s and 40s turning to farm work after being laid off by previous employers.

While seasonal farm work in Oceana County traditionally is done by a majority of migrant workers, Wallington's crew at Brandel Farms LLC, 2308 W. Fox, in Hart, consisted of a mix of migrant workers, a laid-off plumber and a former construction crew foreman.

That mix of workers may become the norm, according to a recent Michigan State University study, which indicated there is now more work to go around in the agriculture industry.

The study noted that the agricultural economy expanded "at a rate more than five times faster than the growth rate of the general economy -- 11.9 percent versus 2 percent -- between 2006 and 2007, making it the second largest industry in Michigan."

For some laid off from the auto and construction industries and various factory jobs, farming has kept them working in Michigan.

Starting over

Wallington had been in the construction industry since 1994. He started out working for a company on the east side of the state and eventually made nearly $20 an hour.

Life was good and bills were getting paid, he said.

When he moved to Oceana County years later, he was hired by a construction company in Hart. Work was steady for a majority of the four years he worked there.

But when the economy took a dive, so did the construction industry, taking down thousands of longtime construction workers across the state.

"The work just wasn't there," Wallington said.

When Wallington was laid off last spring from the Hart company he collected unemployment until he found a new job at a deli/convenience store in Pentwater, making $8 an hour as a cook.

However, the deli wasn't able to provide Wallington with 40 hours of work, so he didn't qualify for health-insurance benefits.

"I had to pay medical expenses out-of-pocket. It sucks. It's hard on you," Wallington said. "It really hits hard."

Wallington said he really started "falling behind" on his bills, so he began looking for a better paying job.

"I was starting to think the convenience store wasn't cutting the mustard," he said.

About that time his former crew supervisor from the Hart construction company -- who also was laid off -- told him about his new job working for a Hart fruit farmer.

"He told me maybe I would want to talk to his boss about hiring me, too," Wallington said.

Before long, Wallington was hired as a farm hand for Brandel Farms, earning a higher wage than he made at the Pentwater store, but significantly less than he made as a construction worker.

Meanwhile, a Hart man traveled a similar path.

Jeff Krieger, 44, was laid off two years ago by a Manistee contractor he worked for more than 20 years.

Due to the economy, Krieger said, his construction crew had been whittled down from 18 to three workers over the past five years.

"In the last five years work has gotten thin. The contractor couldn't keep us busy. There wasn't any work in Manistee," Krieger said.

Krieger ended up getting hired full-time by Major Beef Farm, 292 W. Major, in Scottville.

He said accepting the farm position meant taking a huge pay cut -- nearly a third of what he made in construction -- but it was "steady work."

During the busy season, Krieger said he worked nearly 60 hours a week.

"We're busy," Krieger said. "It's a lot less stress, but a lot less money."

Krieger said he plans to continue working on the farm and will try to rebuild the income he lost with the job change and the plummeting stock market.

"I lost all my retirement, but it's just starting to come back," he said.

More farm help, less profit

Oceana County is better positioned to offer jobs than some counties because it has both the tourist and agriculture industries to fall back on, said Anne Hardy, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation.

However, those jobs tend to be for far lower wages than in construction or manufacturing.

The county had a 16.1 percent unemployment rate in July. That rate had been 19.6 percent in March, prior to the agricultural and tourist seasons.

"I think anyone who has been unemployed for any amount of time is trying to make ends meet," Hardy said. "Oceana County is very lucky it's not relying on the auto industry and they are reliant on tourism and agriculture industries."

Statewide, the agricultural industry likely could lend itself to thousands of Michigan residents for years to come, according to one study.

From 2006 through 2011, the state could see an additional $1 billion economic boost from Michigan's agri-food sector and create up to an additional 23,000 new jobs annually, according to a 2006 study MSU study.

Michael VanAgtmael and his brother, Bob, grow various fruits and vegetables on their farm located 10 miles east of Hart. The third-generation farm raises 90 acres of asparagus and 150 acres of tart cherries, along with peaches, plums and apples.

While crop sales are down this season, VanAgtmael said produce still needs to be harvested and he had no shortage of workers this season.

"We have always struggled during peach season to find enough help and this year it's just the opposite," VanAgtmael said. "We've had help showing up daily and a lot of the guys were laid off from previous jobs."

He said while a surge of workers is "a good thing for us," all the farm's commodities "have taken a downturn with the economy."

"We'll have adequate work force to get them harvested, but we'll sell them for a whole lot less. But we're in a global market and we will deal with it," VanAgtmael said.

"When the week rolls around, you pay your help, but dollars are getting tight."

While final figures reflecting this year's crop sales aren't available, it appears that many fruit farmers will have a difficult time marketing their products.

Norm Myers, MSU Extension director for Oceana County, said it's difficult to predict how peaches and apples will fare. Asparagus farmers were up against cold weather and harvested a much smaller crop, he said.

"As for cherries, farmers had a huge crop they didn't have a market for," Myers said. "They don't know yet what the final price on cherries will be, but a lot of those cherries ended up on the ground because the crop was so huge.