The Livingstone family owns Strawberry Hill Farm in Pembroke, New Brunswick In late May, Tim Livingstone was delighted to see his crew of five seasonal agriculture workers from Mexico finished with their Covid-19 isolation and in the field, planting strawberries. The temporary foreign workers work alongside Tim and his family.
Strawberry Hill Farm has 15 acres in certified organic fruits and vegetables. The Livingstones grow 50 different crops. The farm grows its own forages and grain to feed its livestock and uses the straw for bedding, crop mulching and winter cover.
The farm has hired seasonal agriculture workers for the past six years and Tim Livingstone considers their contribution essential.
“We would hire all local workers if we could find and rely on trained workers,” he said. “Our seasonal workers from Mexico have come to us with years of experience on farms in Mexico, as well as experience on a variety of farms all over Canada. If we did not have the opportunity to employ our trained workers, we could not operate our farm as it currently is.”
Livingstone did hire local workers at the beginning of the 2020 season, but experienced multiple challenges to get them to his farm, isolated and eventually working in the crops.
“We hired nine local workers,” he said. “However, only one or two had any horticulture experience, so we had to continually train them on just about every task. As a result, productivity was very low. We do about 50 different crops, so every crop required additional training and supervision.”
Livingstone told atlanticfarmfocus.ca the farm’s costs increased by 50 percent compared to a typical year.