3-27 IAT Otter Sheep

 In recent discussions with Stan Boyd, the Executive Director of the Idaho Wool Growers Association, I learned that there is a huge problem for wool growers who pay administrative fees and travel expenses for people coming in from primarily high mountain regions of Latin America to work as sheep herders. The problem, according to Stan, is that many of these laborers get here, complements of the sheep ranch owner and then leave their jobs for other opportunities that perhaps pay higher wages. But they still stay here, even though illegally. I got Gov. Otter to talk about this subject. “When I was in the farming and ranching business to the extent that I was, we had what we called the bressario program and if you needed some employees, you went and got them, you brought them in, they worked for you and when their work was done, they went home. Canada has a system like that. If you need 20 employees, you get hold of the Canadian Embassy, they get a hold of what ever embassy, Peru, we have a lot of Peruvians in Idaho, we have a lot of Bolivians in Idaho because of the sheep herding and who would do it and who wouldn’t. Well the Basque folks originally did that in the earlier part of the 20th century. They now own those ranches, they own those sheep so they have seen their path and their future.