Arizona isn’t known as one of America’s top dairy states, but there’s a very good chance that the milk in your refrigerator is the product of one of the state’s family-run dairies.

Arizona dairies produced nearly 5 billion pounds of milk last year, about 2 billion pounds more than when my family started dairying in Arizona in 1998. We’ve grown with the state, and we’ll keep growing as long as it’s possible.

Finding adequate farm labor is one of the greatest challenges we face. We employ almost 40 workers on our operation outside Palo Verde, which has grown to milking nearly 5,000 cows.

Small towns across the state benefit from the jobs created by farms like ours. And I’m proud to say we’ve had stability in our workforce – one employee has been with us since our start in Arizona, and several more have worked here for more than 15 years.

But like other businesses, we’re struggling to attract the high-quality labor force we need to grow.

Few citizens want to do tough dairy work

Most of our newer employees come to us via word-of-mouth, since “Help Wanted” signs aren’t as effective on a rural road. Back when labor markets weren’t so tight, occasionally people would stop by and ask for work, but that rarely happens now. Even rarer is an application from a native-born American.

Dairy farming, and agricultural labor in general, is hard work that provides opportunities for people who want to take a job on a farm to start climbing the ladder of economic opportunity. In the current labor environment, without any immigration reform that increases farmworker availability, finding those workers is already difficult.

But dairy also has some specific constraints that we’re hoping Congress and the White House can help fix.