Brooke Rollins was confirmed on Feb. 13 by the U.S. Senate as secretary of agriculture by a vote of 72-28. She is just the second woman to serve as secretary of agriculture.

Outgoing Dairy Business Association (DBA) President Lee Kinnard welcomed more than 400 people to the Dairy Strong conference on Jan. 16 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The conference featured two keynote presentations and multiple breakout sessions focused on a broad range of topics from sustainability to policy.

“I think there are plenty of workers who would love to come into the U.S. on a longer term to work in the animal industry,” says Hafliger. He adds, “We need to have a long-term program available. The dairy industry is so technical – with the knowledge required – you don’t want to train a guy and then lose him after three months … I would like to see us develop some kind of [work] visa for a set time – at a minimum, for five years.”

The first three quarters of 2024 saw over 300,000 agricultural workers enter the country through the H-2A program, which provides temporary visas for foreign workers to perform seasonal agricultural jobs. It is an important source of labor in the West, with California and Washington ranking third and fourth in the nation, respectively, for H-2A workers.

In this episode of the Progressive Dairy Podcast, host Kimmi Devaney visits with Kansas dairy producer Lee Holtmeier from Linn Willow Creek Dairy about their employee culture, what they do to mentor and empower employees, and how they keep employee turnover low.