RUSHFORD, Minn. — Zero U.S. workers applied to pick or package vegetables at Featherstone Farm this season, which is not unusual, said general manager Nathan Manfull, who has spent 13 seasons at the certified organic vegetable and orchard operation in southeastern Minnesota. In that time, he estimates three local residents have worked on a harvest crew.
"We get very, very little interest locally," Manfull said.
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Featherstone Farm is in Rushford, in southeastern Minnesota, producing around 70 varieties of produce on about 150 acres. It sells to warehouses and stores and to consumers through its CSA program. Whole Foods, which has a warehouse in St. Paul and a regional distribution center in Chicago, is the farm's largest customer.
Featherstone manages to be one of the largest produce operations in the area through its H-2A temporary workers, who could be found spread out, picking and packaging produce on a humid, late summer morning.
Mayra Gasca Rojas, in her 13th year working on an H-2A visa at the farm, was packaging tomatoes and peppers on Aug. 17, and spoke through an interpreter to Agweek. She said she likes working with vegetables and packing them, and she lives with her parents in Mexico. Asked what her favorite part of Minnesota summers was, she said, "everything."
"It's very beautiful, all the greenery, and above all, the work here; we have work and the work keeps coming in," she said. "Everything is green here."
Featherstone Farm certified 33 H-2A guest workers this season and was fortunate to have all of them arrive, Manfull said. Without the visa program, he said the farm would "cease to exist as we know it."
That dependence is now at the center of a push in Congress. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson introduced the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act on June 30 with 49 bipartisan cosponsors, including Reps. Michelle Fischbach of the 7th District, which covers western Minnesota, and Brad Finstad of the 1st District, which covers southern Minnesota.
If enacted, it would be the first statutory change to H-2A in 40 years. The bill would eliminate the requirement that H-2A jobs be seasonal, extend the definition of temporary work to positions lasting fewer than 350 days and create a single online application portal shared by the departments of Labor, Homeland Security and State. It would be a critical change for dairy, pork and other year-round operations shut out of the program.
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"We need to change it to year-round so that livestock, dairy, those folks can use it effectively," Fischbach said in an interview at Farmfest. "Right now, you've got someone who can come over for a season, but in dairy, we need someone long term. We need someone to be there all year."
The bill would also make visas valid for three years, cap annual wage-rate increases, allow multi-year housing certifications and codify Adverse Effect Wage Rate calculation standards.
As of Aug. 17, no Senate companion had been introduced and the House bill remained in committee.
The bill includes language that would allow an existing dairy workforce — much of it undocumented — to transition into visa status. Fischbach said that provision should not be read as an immigration measure.
"This provides an opportunity for those folks already working. They have to go through all of the application," she said. "We can't mix it up with the immigration issue. This is about visas."
A Department of Homeland Security memo earlier this year opened H-2A to dairy operations, but Fischbach said it left the seasonal limit intact.
The National Pork Producers Council and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture endorsed the new bill, which National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Gregg Doud called the most significant ag workforce reform in decades.
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Minnesota's numbers
Minnesota employers used more than 4,000 H-2A workers this year — farm workers, equipment operators, beekeepers and nursery workers — said Fernando Quijano of University of Minnesota Extension. Extension is still finalizing 2026 figures.
Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish said federal enforcement has made workers wary of the state.
"If you're an immigrant or even an H-2A visa person, you maybe look at another state because you saw what happened in Minnesota," he said.
He said livestock operations and larger vegetable farms are feeling it most.
"We need immigration reform. There's no doubt about it," Wertish said.
Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said the program has spread well past its original fruit and vegetable users to dairy, pork and row-crop farms, but it remains a poor fit for milking parlors.
"H-2As are a hard visa to use for dairy. They really work great for crops," Petersen said at Farmfest.
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Ten months, multiple applications
At Featherstone, Manfull said the the seasonal classification for the current H-2A program is a poor description of how the farm runs. Peak season is July through October, but crews stay far longer. He houses H-2A workers at an apartment in Rushford and at a cabin on the ridge above the fields.
"We're very seasonal, of course — vegetables. But we do have year-round work," Manfull said. "Even in the winter, we have a group of H-2A workers here."
The farm's only real gap is early spring, he said.
Reaching those 10 months takes more than one trip through the application process, Manfull said, and a 350-day certification narrows that into one filing.
"It would be very nice if we just had one visa that we had to apply for, rather than multiple rounds," Manfull said.
He said a three-year certification would save the farm money and paperwork, but he was more measured on the bill's cap on annual increases to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, the federal formula setting the minimum H-2A employers must pay. The rate adjusts each year, almost always upward, and a recent adjustment forced payroll changes at the farm, Manfull said.
"You never want to pay your people less," he said. "They're worth every penny."