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Agricultural Machines Scores of Jim Bittner’s cherry trees are now just heaps of roots and sticks, piled in his fields here along Route 18. Some of the branches lying on the ground are dotted with small blossoms, the season’s earliest evidence that sweet cherries were on their way. But for Mr. Bittner, having sweet cherries would have meant hiring someone to prune the trees and harvest the fruit, and he was not sure that he could do it this year. So he cut his trees down.Skip to next paragraphMultimediaConcerned About Migrant Labor, a Farmer Turns to Machines Audio Slide ShowConcerned About Migrant Labor, a Farmer Turns to Machines “We always assumed we could find the labor we would need,” said Mr. Bittner, who has managed Singer Farms since 1991. “We’re not making that assumption anymore.” Mr. Bittner said he was planning to grow blueberries, or tart cherries for use in pies, because those crops could be harvested by machine and did not require migrant workers. Others managing the fields and dairies of western New York State are starting to make the same calculation. For the last several years, crackdowns on illegal immigrants and the lack of comprehensive immigration reform have increased anxiety among the region’s farmers, many of whom rely on a migrant labor force from Latin America to work their fields. Some have begun making changes in their operations to reduce their reliance on that labor force. For some, this has meant making temporary adjustments, like putting in less cabbage, or resisting the temptation to put in profitable, labor-intensive crops like asparagus. It can also mean making fundamental changes that cannot be easily reversed. Mr. Bittner cut down 25 acres of sweet cherry trees, some of which were 30 years old. He also dug up 20 acres of peach trees that were 12 to 15 years old. In all, he razed more than 10 percent of his fruit orchards this year, a decision that he said was a direct response to the immigration situation. There will be no harvest from the newly cleared fields until at least 2011. “We don’t take it lightly to make these changes,” Mr. Bittner said. Other farms are making large capital investments in mechanical systems that will allow them to cut their work force significantly. Fewer farmers are willing to buy neighboring properties, a traditional method of expansion for agricultural businesses. At least one food-processing company claims that it is already having trouble buying produce in the quantities it needs. Great Lakes Kraut, based in Shortsville, N.Y., which relies heavily on farmers in western New York for the cabbage it ferments to make sauerkraut, has been able to buy only about 80 percent of what it needs this year, according to the company’s vice president, Ben Frega. That will not lead to a shortage of sauerkraut, but Mr. Frega said it did play a role in a 10 percent price increase. “It’s been more difficult to secure our crops than any year I can remember,” Mr. Frega said. There are no data on the number of farmers changing crops because of the labor problem. Farmers’ organizations and state officials said that only small numbers of farmers were making major changes and that there was no immediate threat of major disruptions in local agricultural markets. But experts monitoring New York’s agricultural industry said that the shift away from labor-intensive crops would accelerate if the uncertainty over migrant labor and immigration policies remained unresolved. (On May 20, an attempt by Senator Diane Feinstein of California to attach a guest worker program to an Iraq spending bill failed.) “I don’t believe that we are seeing those numbers right yet, but I do think that this is a serious conversation that farmers are having,” said Jessica Chittenden, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Agriculture. “One of the things that will change is the fresh market crops that need to be handpicked. They’re fresh, they’re fragile and they need that special personal harvest.”