News
Congressmen address labor related supply chain delays heading into harvest
Labor shortages continue to minimize access to farm machinery parts.
Northeast Illinois farmer and Illinois Soybean Association Chairman Steve Pitstick says local parts dealers are struggling to access inventory in a timely manner, which has him concerned about potential harvest delays if equipment breaks down this fall.
“Most of the things that break on my machines I could not have predicted, so there is really no way to stock up ahead of time.”
House Ag Ranking Member Glenn GT Thompson tells Brownfield parts availability is one of many supply chain issues stemming from the national labor shortage.
“There are more jobs open today in the US than any time in our history, so we have got to get Americans back to work. Then there are some places where we need legal temporary workers from other countries through the H2A program or perhaps a new work visa program.”
Congressman Rodney Davis would like to incentivize rural America to become a manufacturing hub to combat this issue down the road.
“If we are going to invest federal dollars in increasing and encouraging manufacturing, let’s make sure we pinpoint some of those dollars to where we can address the global supply chain issues by bringing manufacturing back to the US.”
Brownfield interviewed Pitstick, Thompson and Davis during Ag Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.
