If your farm is big enough that you need someone outside yourself or your family to work on it, getting workers and managing them can be challenging.
Where to find employees?
Most farmers find that the best strategy for finding employees is hiring people they already know and trust. If you don’t have anyone that meets that bill, ask friends or fellow farmers for recommendations. If that still doesn’t work, there are several agricultural job boards you can post on (see below). But, a warning, bringing in folks that are new to farming, or new to the area can be a major investment. You’ll be doing a lot of educating and often a lot of hand-holding or support for people that are away from their normal support systems. If you are planning to hire interns, the NMDA offers a grant called The Agrictultural Workforce Development Program which can cover up to 50% of the cost of hiring interns.
Agricultural job boards:
- ATTRA has an internship listing board. It’s free to list an opportunity here.
- Good Food is a jobs board for internships and employees in restaurants and farms. You do have to pay to post here.
- WWOOF is a platform for hosts to provide food and lodging to people that will support farms with various tasks. It’s best for shorter term arrangements.
How to manage employees and the paperwork associated with hiring.
- Here is a great overview from EcoFarm Daily about how to hire employees and what you need to know about taxes, workers’ comp, etc.
- The Farm Labor Dashboard from the University of Vermont has a ton of resources on everything related to employing and managing people.
- The Farmer’s Shed has an in-depth article on all things related to hiring employees.
- Here are labor laws fact sheets for employees, interns, volunteers, family members, children
- Oklahoma State University has a great pdf on Farm Labor Management.
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