Empirical and anecdotal evidence establish that U.S. farms operate under a tightening labor market where the domestic workforce is unwilling to take on farm jobs.  In recent years, farms increasingly relied on the guest-worker H-2A program for sourcing contractual foreign workers, which allows them to work for a short period of time in a farm. However, livestock farms accounted for only 4-8% of the H-2A workers because the industry needs year-round labor cannot be filled by seasonal, temporary H-2A work contracts.