Jul. 25—TRAVERSE CITY — Nels Veliquette is quick to dispel the misconception that harvesting cherries is "unskilled labor."

The Antrim County farmer says to consider a cherry tree shaker that costs about $100,000 a piece.

"You think I'm going to put somebody on there that doesn't have skill?" Veliquette asked. "If they grip the tree and shake it too hard, that they can destroy or damage the tree for the rest of its productive life?"

Much like other businesses in the Traverse City area who are struggling to staff workers amid a labor shortage fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the cherry industry is too amid the annual mid-July harvest.

Farmers like Veliquette who hire seasonal workers from Mexico on an H-2A visa say the lack of local farm workers comes as a result of a bad stigma toward working in the industry. It's been that way on his farm since 2018.

Those workers also have a high desire will to be there, he said.

"We need to get over these stereotypes about what this kind of work is and who the kind of people are that do this work," Veliquette said.

LAND DEMANDS

On top of that, a burgeoning real estate market and competitive rental market can make living in the northern Michigan region full-time expensive. That means farmers have to provide housing to those workers.

Thirty years ago parents may have expected their kids to work on cherry farms over the summer. Veliquette called that a 'badge of honor' high school and college kids used to carry, but that just doesn't happen anymore.

"The reality is there just are not enough workers to fill those positions locally," Veliquette said. "Culturally it's something that people feel like is not important to do anymore."

Isaiah Wunsch, cherry farmer on the Old Mission Peninsula, hosts a crew of 30 to 40 people annually. The newest family of workers has been there for 10 years.

"Because of the hot job market, a lot of people who would normally come up here from Florida, Texas or east from Washington have stayed out there because jobs are really plentiful in those areas," Wunsch said.

Workers who would typically work a seasonal job on a farm are also looking for year-round jobs on farms — like equipment operators and cherry tree maintenance. On farms elsewhere those jobs have opened up during the pandemic.

Wunsch too created three year-round jobs on his farm recently.

"There's a there's a trend nationally toward eating more and more fresh produce," Wunsch said. "And as we do more fresh produce, we're shifting toward toward orchards or plantings that are easier or more efficient to pick. But a lot of times to make the picking easier, you need to invest more time in year-round work."

However, there's a cost-benefit of farming fresh produce. Wunsch said it can be more more financially sustainable to make smaller farms more profitable in a hot real estate market.

"I see the fresh apples and fresh cherries as a good future option for growers in this area," Wunsch said.

CLIMATE CHANGE

For farmers who may have been skeptic of climate change, Wunsch said the last three years should have been a wake-up call.

He anticipates harvesting at most 40 percent of planted crop.

The cherry growing season saw a drought in May and June and a spontaneous summer hail storm. The bright side of that was a late stretch of rain just before harvest in July.

Wunsch has had to hand-pick more cherries because if a tree with moldy cherries were to be shook it many wouldn't be usable.

"The tops of the trees took the brunt of the hail damage a couple of weeks ago," Wunsch said. "I know that that's caused problems for farmers all over the region."

Veliquette said there's two ways to mitigate such unpredictable weather moving forward.

One solution is an investment in frost protection using small towers that look like windmills and pull warmer air down so that trees maintain an above-freezing temperatures.

The second is moving farms away from 'marginalized' land and planting trees closer to the water and higher above ground.

The problem with the second solution — that's also where people want to live.

"Can you pay $25,000 to $30,000 an acre for land that you're going to put tart cherries on that don't produce any cash flow for seven years?" Veliquette said. "We may just see the fact that this industry begins to shrink because of the fact that the marginal sites don't produce as much anymore, and there just isn't the available land for prime sites there used to be."

Follow Andrew Rosenthal on Twitter @ByAndrewR