Farm specialist suggests help from Hispanics

By CHRISTINA SOBRAN
Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by David Leaming enlarge Agri-Placement Services, Inc. Peter Conlon speaks about farms that hire Hispanic laborers, during a talk at the Maine Farm Days event at The Wright Place dairy farm in Clinton on Tuesday.

CLINTON -- Maine farmers are a versatile bunch -- students of biology, meteorology, and machinery, among other disciplines.

Add some simple culture lessons and a few words of Spanish, and they'll be ready for Hispanic laborers, according to Peter Conlon, of Middlebury, Vt., dairy labor support specialist for Agri-Placement Services, Inc.

Conlon, whose agency matches up farmers and laborers, told a group of farmers at Maine Farm Days in Clinton that language barriers can easily be overcome by demonstrating jobs, and using lots of hand gestures.

"Generally these hurdles don't take much to get over," he said. "The payback is workers who don't cut corners and who do what's expected of them, exactly how you want it done."

He said both cultures need to understand one another. For example, Mexicans tend to be expressive and outgoing, while New Englanders don't.

"Northern New Englanders tend to not be very talkative," Conlon said. "Warm interaction is very important. ... It's hard for some of them to understand that if your boss doesn't speak to you for a week, it's a good thing."

Although many Mexicans work in Maine as seasonal laborers, full-time, year-round Hispanic farm workers are not yet as common here as in other parts of the country.

Farmer Luke Rogers of Clinton said there are about 15 employees, more or less, at The Wright Place dairy farm, but so far, no Hispanics.

"We've considered it," he said. "We have a hard time finding good help."

He said the farm has hired high school students, but they can only work limited hours and tend to get bored milking cows.

"It's a tedious job, and you get very dirty," he said.

Conlon said Vermont dairy farms were in crisis before a recent influx of Hispanic farm workers.

"There simply isn't other labor out there to do the work, willing to work weekends, to work nights, to work in cow (manure)," Conlon said. "By and large they have left their wife and kids back in Mexico for the sole purpose of working to support their families. If you don't give them 65 hours of work a week, they're going to complain that they're not working enough. ... They're there to work, to work long hours, to make money and send it home."

Christina Sobran -- 861-9253

csobran@centralmaine.com