MAGA dairy farm owner tells job applicant to ‘get bent’ for requesting $20 an hour, despite complaining about worker shortage
This is an issue for farmers across the country.
A dairy farm owner in Westfield, Wisconsin, turned to the internet to express her frustration and the challenges she faces in hiring workers to help care for the cows on her farm. While her video highlighted worker shortages, viewers argued her situation was a consequence of her political views.
Abby Swan (@abbyswan) first shared her woes on TikTok, which has since been made private, but shared on other platforms. “Life on the farm is really, really stressful,” Swan said in a video re-shared by @SeanOhhhh on X.
Swan said she had been working 80 hours per week tending the dairy farm she owns and, with the lack of farmhands, had been relying on local students to help for the past few months. But with students returning to school, her situation turned more dire.
Farmers are struggling
To keep the farm running, Swan needs to milk her 300 cows twice daily—a task impossible for one person to handle on top of other duties. Swan had been trying to hire more farmhands and had posted a “Help Wanted” sign. However, the positions remained unfilled. “We need help, and I don’t know how you fix that,” she said.
Swan, however, admitted that there had been an applicant whom she turned away after they negotiated the pay and benefits during the interview. “I had a guy stop that wanted $20 an hour and free housing,” Swan said. “I told him to ‘get bent.’ But that’s the sad state of dairy farming.” She added that she didn’t have housing for employees, nor the funds to pay a $20 rate.
Swan claimed that her struggle isn’t unique to dairy farmers, but is an issue faced by farmers across the U.S. in general. “It’s a real struggle. […] Just farmers in general struggling because: One, no employees. And two, [the] financial situation of most farmers in America is dire,” Swan said.
Swan told Spectrum News that prices for seed, fertilizer, and diesel fuel are high, and that she has to shoulder additional diesel surcharges imposed by delivery drivers and milk haulers. Expenses also go toward the upkeep of cows and maintaining the quality of the milk.
Founder and president of the non-profit Talking, Understanding, Growing and Supporting (TUGS), Jeff Ditzenberger, noted that it costs around $20 to $21 per hundredweight to produce milk, while farmers are only seeing $16.50 in return, per the outlet. “Everything’s gotten so far out of line when it comes to what they’re getting for their product compared to what their expenses are, so there’s just this sense of despair,” Ditzenberger said.
Majority of farm workers are Hispanic
While Swan did not mention the government as the possible reason for the worker shortage due to its crackdown on immigration, commenters on X argued that she is facing the consequences of allegedly supporting Donald Trump. “I thought Americans wanted those jobs? Wasn’t that what we were told by the GOP?” one commenter wrote. Another added, “Isn’t there an old saying about reaping what you have sown?”
Some commenters also claimed that Swan was trying to hire workers with wages that did not match the expected workload: “‘I can’t pay $20 an hour.’ No, she’s looking for people to do backbreaking work for minimum wage – or less. Good luck with that. At least getting American workers. But I’ll bet she votes straight Republican.”
The Guardian reported that there are over 2.6 million farm workers in the U.S., 73% of whom are of Hispanic origin. The Trump administration’s commitment to deporting immigrants has put farm workers at risk and their fear at an all-time high, with 66% of them being immigrants with non-U.S. citizenship, while 47% are not legally authorized to work, per the National Agricultural Workers Survey data in 2022.
The administration, however, acknowledged the growing need for workers in the dairy farming industry and has opened a path for migrant labor. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in June that dairy farms can utilize the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program so long as employers can provide a qualifying temporary or seasonal labor demand under current legal guidelines.
In a separate video, Swan allegedly defended herself from people asking about her voting record. “I would never ever vote for a Democrat, liberal, socialist, communist ever in my life if this is the way I would be treated,” Swan said.
Amid criticism for her political affiliations, Swan fears that with the rising costs and lack of workers, her dairy farm might see an end to its operations like others in Wisconsin. “I hope we can keep it. But what do you do when you don’t have any employees, and your milk price is garbage?” she said.
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