A Texas farmer has pleaded guilty to charging illegal fees to farmworkers employed through a federal guest-worker program.

According to court records, Ernesto Garza worked as a supervisor and foreman of farm workers at F.D.C., an agricultural services company that operates farms throughout Idaho, including in Glenns Ferry. F.D.C. employed H-2A agricultural workers each year from approximately March to November. 

Between at least 2005 and 2019, while he served as a supervisor and foreman, Garza was responsible for preparing and submitting payroll timesheets for H-2A workers based on the number of hours worked. He was also responsible for assigning various tasks and projects to the workers he supervised.

According to authorities, Garza charged certain H-2A agricultural workers a flat fee to work at F.D.C. under the H-2A program, with the fee ranging from approximately $750 to $2,500. Garza charged the fees without F.D.C.’s knowledge or approval, and the H-2A agricultural workers paid the fees to Garza each year because they feared that they would be fired or not allowed to return to F.D.C. under the H-2A program in future years if they did not pay. Garza was not permitted to request or collect such fees under H-2A agricultural worker rules and regulations. 

Between 2013 and 2019, Garza also deposited approximately $493,153 in unreported income into his personal bank accounts, in part, from the extortion described above as well as a separate scheme to defraud the farm. Garza did not disclose the additional income on his tax return for the years 2013 through 2019, which resulted in false Form 1040 tax returns being prepared and filed. 

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the H-2A program allows U.S. employers who meet certain requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs that cannot otherwise be filled because there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the work.

Garza is scheduled to be sentenced on July 18, 2024. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

America’s farmers and ranchers are leading the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through voluntary conservation efforts and market-based incentives. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2022.

The report shows that American agriculture reduced emissions by almost 2 percent from 2021 to 2022, the most significant decrease of any economic sector.

American Farm Bureau Federation economists analyzed the data in the latest Market Intel, noting, “U.S. agriculture represents just under 10 percent of total U.S. emissions when compared to other economic sectors … By EPA’s own methodology, emissions from agriculture totaled 634 million metric tons in CO2 equivalents, or 9.99 percent of all U.S. emissions, during 2022. This represents a decrease of 1.8 percent, or 12 million metric tons, from 2021 … 2022 marks the lowest U.S. agricultural greenhouse gas emissions since 2012.”

“The latest numbers demonstrate farmers’ and ranchers’ commitment to growing the food and fiber America’s families rely on while improving the land, air and water, a benefit to the farm and the climate,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “The drop in agricultural emissions highlights the success and importance of voluntary and market-based programs that support farmer efforts in sustainable agriculture practices. The latest numbers should also serve as inspiration to lawmakers who can build on this progress by passing a farm bill, which not only provides a safety net for farmers, but also helps them meet sustainability goals.”

Other highlights specific to the agricultural sector in the Market Intel include:

• 12-million-metric-ton reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• 2.1% reduction in livestock GHG emissions
• 1.7% reduction in crop cultivation emissions
• 1.2% reduction in fuel combustion emissions

Read the full Market Intel here.

»Related: Agriculture’s climate goals: A response to The New York Times

MANRRS is the nation’s top organization for the recruitment and cultivation of diverse talent in agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences. At its national conference in March, known as #MANRRS38, the Executive Committee opted to expand the group’s operations through the creation of a CEO position.

This position will place MANRRS leadership on par with peer talent development organizations and will empower MANRRS to grow and scale at a modern pace to meet the needs of the industry and its membership.

“MANRRS has grown to the point where we now have a full-time staff dedicated to the daily operations of the organization. What started as purely volunteer roles, have evolved into essential positions that keep the organization running and competitive daily,” said Dr. Derris D. Burnett, MANRRS’ national president, in an email to stakeholders on Monday. “As a member-based organization, we depend on the entire national office team to work on the business so that the executive leadership can work in the business on behalf of the membership. To operate in an everchanging and increasingly competitive environment, we must empower this team to make the daily decisions that enact the vision and meets the needs of the MANRRS membership.”

The role of the CEO will be to:

• Help craft and execute the strategic vision and direction of the organization and provide consistency year over year.
• Sustain the growth trajectory and maintain the cutting edge of the organization in this sector.
• Execute the operations and business of the organization with appropriate reporting and accountability structure.
• Create continuity for the organization without losing the membership experience and professional development focus that differentiates MANRRS from our peer organizations.

The essential job functions of this position are broken out as 50 percent Strategic Vision and Leadership, 20 percent Operational Infrastructure and Performance, 20 percent Partnership Development, and 10 percent Program Development. The full description is available here.

MANRRS has offerings for our pre-collegiate, collegiate, and professional membership, and with its explosive organizational growth come intrinsic constraints that the group says must be addressed to continue this trajectory. MANRRS says its constraints can be summed up in the following 3-S’s:

• Speed: The demand for MANRRS talent and services is immediate and persistent. Our current structure constrains our ability to respond to this demand in a manner that keeps us competitive and cedes our competitive advantage in many cases.
• Scale: MANRRS has built a deliberate pipeline that ranges from pre-collegiate to professional. Our ability to support and serve more students and professionals at the national, regional, and local levels is hampered by scalability constraints. And delivering more MANRRS programming to the target audiences and MANRRS family.
• Service: Our ability to provide the highest quality experience for each of our membership groups is the top priority of the MANRRS organization and is a differentiator from our peer contemporaries. To reach this level of service, we must adapt and optimize our business operations and our membership services. This requires modifications to our organizational structure to optimize our attention to the business and service to the body membership body.

The MANRRS’ national office currently consists of a chief operating officers, business manager, program manager, and junior MANRRS coordinator.

The new CEO position “will empower the organization to grow and scale at a modern pace to meet the needs of the industry and our growing membership,” Burnett said.

University of Missouri Director of Veterinary Extension Craig Payne urges cattle producers to watch for signs of disease associated with Theileria orientalis, a protozoal organism recently detected in Missouri.

This organism, which primarily affects cattle, causes disease by infecting red blood cells. The immune system attacks the infected cells, resulting in anemia.

First discovered in 2017 in the United States, it has been found in nine states, including Missouri. Payne says that as of March 1, 2024, there were six counties in Missouri where cattle have tested positive: Bates, Howell, Oregon, Platte, Shelby, and Webster. The first case was detected in Howell County in the summer of 2023.

With mild infections, cattle may show elevated temperature, depression, and pale mucous membranes. With severe infections, they can show severe depression, and the mucous membranes around the eyes and the vulva appear jaundiced with a yellow tinge. Pregnant animals may abort, and animals will lose their body condition. Payne notes that most infected cattle never show symptoms, and death loss rates are typically less than 5 percent.

Symptoms sometimes confused with anaplasmosis

Payne says the symptoms are similar to those of anaplasmosis. A key difference is that anaplasmosis symptoms are rarely seen in cattle under 2 years old, but symptoms associated with theileria are seen in both calves and adults.

Transmission

The main route of transmission is through the Asian longhorned tick, an invasive species found in 19 states. The tick eats blood meal from an infected animal and then transmits it to other animals through its saliva to other animals within the herd or nearby herds. Other insects, such as lice, biting flies, and other tick species, may be involved in transmission as well.

Blood-contaminated equipment can also transfer the organism from infected to uninfected animals. This would include needles and dehorning, castration and tagging equipment. Up to 10 percent of calves born to infected animals may carry the organism.

Once transmitted, symptoms appear in 1-8 weeks.

Carriers for life

Infected animals will become lifelong carriers of the organism but are unlikely to show symptoms of disease again. Culling these chronic carriers from a herd may be warranted if disease prevalence is low, says Payne.

Management: Treatment, prevention, and control

Antibiotics commonly used to treat and control anaplasmosis in cattle do not appear to be effective against this disease. Recommendations for managing clinical cases include minimizing stress and providing supportive care.

According to Payne, no vaccines are currently available to prevent the disease. The best option is to control Asian long-horned tick populations. Payne recommends a Virginia Cooperative Extension publication on tick management practices for cattle producers, which you can view online.

Payne also recommends quarantining and treating new animals for ticks. In herds where the disease is already present, changing needles between animals and disinfecting equipment that may be blood-contaminated is good standard practice.

Finally, seek guidance from your veterinarian, who can recommend the best strategy for preventing or controlling the disease in your herd, says Payne.