Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, said the nursery industry remains strong in Oregon in 2023 despite a number of challenges that growers face.

SALEM — The Oregon nursery industry continues to thrive despite a series of challenges it has encountered in the past year.

The challenges include a labor shortage, increasing costs, continued pressure against pesticide use and a new state law requiring overtime pay for agricultural workers. This year employees working more than 55 hours in a week receive additional compensation.

“I believe (the industry) remains strong despite the myriad of challenges that (growers) seem to face,” said Jeff Stone, Oregon Association of Nurseries executive director and CEO.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for nursery stock as people staying home from work took up projects around their houses and yards. Oregon growers experienced robust sales during and after the pandemic.

Oregon’s nursery industry is the largest agricultural sector in the state and the third-largest producer of nursery stock in the U.S, with revenues of about $1.3 billion in 2021.

This year, two emerging themes involve growers grappling with labor issues and seeking new ways of innovating.

Labor

Labor availability and costs continue to challenge growers.

“There just isn’t enough of a workforce,” Stone said.

Nursery work is difficult; it requires a delicate touch alongside intense physical labor. And there is a new potential challenge facing nursery owners, as well as the whole agricultural community.

Since Jan. 1, employers must pay agricultural workers time-and-a-half after 55 hours of work per week. Over the next four years, that number will ratchet down to require overtime after 40 hours.

“The intent behind the bill is a recognition that agricultural workers should be paid overtime,” said Laura van Enckevort, the wage and hour division administrator at the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

She said the agency’s focus the past six months has been on educating workers and employers on both the requirements of the bill and their rights, which can be complicated to understand.

While proponents say the new requirement will increase salaries and keep workers safer, Stone worries there is neither enough money to pay people more nor enough workers to hire to keep hours under the overtime requirement.

Even though, this year, employers might be able to handle paying overtime after 55 hours per week, they are preparing for what it will be like in four years, and are starting to make decisions with the future in mind.

“Ag is not like a speedboat; it’s more like a cruise ship,” Stone said. “You can’t turn fast.”

Todd Nelson, owner of Bountiful Farms nursery in Woodburn, is already talking to employees about what they will do during the next four years as the overtime law becomes incrementally stricter.

“It is a concern that (farm employees) will be getting less hours, and they don’t want it,” said Nelson. “They didn’t ask for it and we didn’t ask for it.”

Innovations

Despite — and maybe because of — these challenges, growers continue to innovate. Bountiful Farms is at the forefront of mechanizing certain processes. Some pruning, for example, can be done by a machine.

Instead of taking minutes, Nelson’s machine can prune hydrangeas in about 15 seconds. The machine eliminates monotonous and repetitive labor for Nelson’s employees, saving them time and allowing them to focus on tasks that require a human touch.

Another step forward in technology in recent years is the commercialization of variable-rate pesticide sprayers. Lloyd Nackley, an associate professor at Oregon State University, helped lead a research project on a variable-rate, or intelligent, spray system developed by a scientist with the USDA. The study compared the new system to traditional air-blast sprayers, which blast the pesticide at one rate.

The intelligent spray system kit is retrofitted onto a traditional sprayer and is monitored with a computer tablet. Using LiDAR — light detection and ranging — technology, the software analyzes the plant canopy and adjusts the amount of pesticide it sprays. A less dense canopy requires less spray, and the technology limits off-target spraying, which is a common issue with traditional sprayers since they can’t adjust their output.

Nackley found that, compared to constant-rate sprayers, the intelligent spray system can reduce the pesticide amount used by 50-70%, lowering its environmental and economic impact. This also saves time and labor, as there is less refilling of the sprayer tanks.

Overall, Stone, Nelson and Nackley all have the sense that it’s been a good year in the nursery industry. Oregon growers are continuing to see high sales numbers, Stone said, all while navigating labor challenges and implementing innovations.