‘GT’ Thompson attends World Dairy Exposition, invited by American Dairy Coalition

MADISON, Wis. — Workforce was front and center as House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson came to World Dairy Expo for the first time at the invitation of the American Dairy Coalition (ADC) for a Dairy Farmers’ Workforce Roundtable and press conference focused on his H.R. 9535, the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act.

The bill was introduced in June and has 60 bipartisan cosponsors and support from nearly 600 organizations.

The roundtable discussion with seven farmers started on topic and reached beyond — to farm transition, rising costs, and other dairy policy questions from among the 50 farmers, lenders, industry representatives, and media who registered to attend.

‘Don’t forget the farms in the middle’

“When we talk about workforce, it’s important that we don’t forget the farms in the middle,” said Dave Smith, sharing that his own family farm has evolved.

After 31 years leading the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association, he now helps his son, the fifth generation, in a farm business raising dairy replacement heifers and beef cattle for direct-to-consumer sales.

“Farms evolve, and they specialize and diversify,” Smith said, adding when another generation comes home, the farm must create enough opportunity to support another family. That can mean diversification or more cows, more acres — and often more employees.

“As the family farm grows, the need for a workforce grows right alongside that farm family and that growth potential,” he said.

Smith mentioned a nearby dairy that has struggled with employee recruitment and retention, but the work does not disappear when someone fails to show up. “There can be no gaps in the cattle feeding and the milking routines.

“A family farm should not have to choose between staying small enough to do every job themselves and getting big enough to absorb everything through scale,” he said.

Pennsylvania at a crossroads

Those pressures are increasingly tied to farm transition. Smith cited a Center for Dairy Excellence 2025 Dairy Producer Survey Summary in which 27% of active Pennsylvania dairy farm respondents said they planned a generational transfer within three to five years, while another 7% expected to stop milking cows during that period.

He shared that Pennsylvania has fallen from around 5200 dairy farms to about 4200 over the past decade. Cow numbers declined from 525,000 in 2017 to 455,000 in 2025, while annual milk production fell from nearly 11 billion pounds to 9.7 billion over the same period.

Smith said some farmers he knows left dairying because “they were exhausted. They were exhausted with the task of recruiting and retaining a domestic workforce that has become unreliable.”

At the same time, new dairy processing investment, including Chobani’s planned facility at the former Dr Pepper plant in Lehigh County, creates opportunity.

“Will Pennsylvania have the farms, the cows, the next generation and the people to take advantage of the opportunity in front of us?” Smith asked. “We absolutely need a reliable workforce. A reliable workforce matters to farm transition.”

His message to Thompson and others in the room was simple: “Don’t forget the middle. It’s not about filling tomorrow morning’s milking shift. It’s whether that dairy farm family has room to grow their business.”

No off-season

• Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Brad Olson, a former dairy farmer, reinforced why dairy does not fit the seasonal H-2A model. A missing employee affects not only the farm but other jobs throughout rural communities including milk haulers, veterinarians, feed suppliers, equipment and service providers, and processors, which means many more jobs are supported beyond the farmgate that rely on dairy farms being successful.
• Wisconsin dairy farmer Chuck Ripp said Hispanic employees have worked on his farm for more than 40 years. His longest-tenured employee has been there 26 years, with several others working 15 to 23 years. Those experienced employees know the cows, the milking routines, maternity and calf care, feeding, equipment and safety — experience in consistent cattle care that cannot simply be replaced every few months by seasonal guestworkers.
• Illinois dairy farmer Bryan Henrichs described hiring six high school students. Within a year, all six were gone. Labor availability was one reason his farm eventually installed a rotary parlor to milk more efficiently and reduce dependence on additional workers.
• Steve Obert, executive director of Indiana Dairy Producers and a dairy farmer, pushed back on the notion that workforce reform is about cheap labor. Farms already carry substantial costs beyond wages for housing, transportation, workers’ compensation, recruitment and certification. He pointed to the SAWA bill’s H-2A wage structure.
• Sam Schwoeppe, a sixth-generation Indiana farmer who also works in food security, brought the discussion back to the people already doing the work — feeding calves, caring for fresh cows, milking, operating equipment and working weekends and holidays. Agriculture needs a system that is “legal, accountable and secure,” she said, urging farmers to tell lawmakers what losing an experienced employee means to their cows, businesses, families and communities.
• ADC President Walt Moore, a Pennsylvania dairy farmer, said the industry may finally be within reach of a year-round workforce solution for when local recruitment fails, after nearly four decades of trying. “Forty years is long enough. I do wholeheartedly believe that we are as close as we’ve been to making something happen,” he said with a message for farmers to build relationships with lawmakers, invite them onto their farms and make the issue personal. “Now’s the time. Farmers can’t wait another two years for a workable system.”

‘Common sense’

Thompson put the change in agricultural labor into numbers. In 1995, about 11,000 H-2A positions were advertised. By 2025, that number had grown to more than 400,000, yet fewer than 200 Americans applied, he said.

The positions must first be offered to domestic workers, and farms must demonstrate their local recruitment efforts. SAWA does not change that.

H.R. 9535 grew out of nearly four years of work by a bipartisan agricultural labor task force Thompson initiated, made up of eight Republicans and eight Democrats. The legislation would open H-2A to year-round agriculture, including dairy, with contracts up to 350 days and employer certification lasting three years.

At the same time, it provides a legal guestworker status tied to agricultural employment for qualifying workers already here.

Wisconsin producer Grant Grinstead was among the attendees asking Thompson where the pushback against the bill is coming from and what farmers should tell lawmakers who remain reluctant to support it.

Thompson said much of the opposition centers on claims that the legislation amounts to “amnesty,” a characterization he rejected. “What we’re doing is common sense. It is preserving the balance of food security,” he said, explaining that qualifying ag workers already here would have to document agricultural work experience, pass a criminal background check, and meet other H-2A requirements.

Loos Tales media personality Trent Loos, a sixth generation Nebraska cattle and pork producer raised another concern: Passing a workforce bill is one thing; making sure federal agencies administer it the way Congress intended is another.

“It’s called oversight,” Thompson responded, promising “tremendous oversight” of implementation. “You can’t pass stuff and then just hope that an unelected bureaucrat fulfills the intent of Congress.” He said USDA involvement in administering the program is also being contemplated.

Another Wisconsin producer among the attendees brought it back to the value of experienced people. “Our guys, they’re skilled. They’re highly qualified. Farm labor isn’t plug-and-play. A producer cannot simply grab anybody off the street and just put them in that position.”

“That’s right,” Thompson responded, observing that this is what makes the current seasonal H-2A program largely unworkable for dairy.

He also made clear that he came to listen. “We write good legislation when we use what God gave us. That’s two ears and one mouth. So I’m in a listening mode.”

When the formal roundtable ended, farmers took him up on that invitation as Thompson opened the floor, and the conversation moved beyond workforce into several other dairy topics. To be continued in Part Two: Farmers take the microphone.