New York farmers are considering ways of reducing overhead costs — including tighter controls over the number of hours employees work and spending more on machinery to produce efficiency — amid a planned expansion of overtime for workers, a Cornell University survey found. 

A majority of specialty crop producers, 71%, as well as 66% of dairy producers, expect to implement reduced costs for labor costs. Forty-six percent of dairy producers also expect to invest in equipment meant to increase labor productivity. 

And the survey found 43% of speciality crop producers plan to continue their work as is, compared to 34% of dairy farmers surveyed in New York. 

The survey's results were touted by agriculture organizations who have opposed the lower threshold for overtime at farms, which is set to be reduced from 60 hours a week to 40 hours in the coming decade. The added costs are expected to be offset by a state subsidy. 

But a years-long timeline and the subsidization for the overtime costs have done little to quell opposition from many producers. 

“This latest report from Cornell shows without a doubt that lowering the overtime farm labor threshold to 40 hours will make farming harder in New York," said Grow NY Farms, a coalition of agriculture producers and organizations. "In fact, a lower overtime threshold will put our food security at risk, reduce farmworkers’ earnings, and force farms to make tough decisions about the future of their family-owned businesses. The already negotiated 60-hour threshold is workable for both farmers and farmworkers. Governor Hochul must protect family farms across New York State and immediately suspend Commissioner Reardon’s decision to accept a lower overtime threshold."

Supporters of the overtime expansion have said the change is necessary in order to include farm workers in a labor system that has excluded those laborers for nearly a century.