Successfully Staffing Your Farm

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

On Friday, March 20 Tilth Producers of Washington and the WSU Small Farms Program will be hosting a regional workshop at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center in North Bend on the successful management of farm interns and employees. Angela Anegon, Education Coordinator with Tilth Producers.

ANEGON: The workshop is really in response to a great interest in farmers wanting to know more about how to hire employees versus hiring interns; so it will give them an opportunity to compare and contrast if they want employees, if they want interns. We’ll have farmers there speaking on how they manage both interns and employees to give examples of successful management styles.

The workshop will also include a presentation from Agricultural Employment Standards Specialist Tisa Soeteber, with state L & I to discuss the basics of agriculture employment from hired seasonal labor to farm interns.

ANEGON: And they’ll speak about the Farm Internship Project, which is affecting farmers in several counties across the state. So that will be a great opportunity for farmers and attendants to get some answers directly from Labor and Industries on their concerns on being legal with interns and employees.

There will also be discussions on being a farm mentor and developing an internship curriculum with representatives from the Jefferson County Field Program and the WSU Cultivating Success Program.

ANEGON: So it’s going to be a great day, and we’ll have former interns and employees there to give their perspective on what it’s like to be hired to a farm.

For more information and to pre-register for the workshop visit www.tilthproducers.org.

That’s Washington Ag Today.

I’m Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.