California bureaucrats separated sheep from goats. This farmer says it could cost him his business

The clock is ticking for Tim Arrowsmith and his goats.

Arrowsmith owns Blue Tent Farms in Red Bluff, home to more than 2,000 head of goats — goats whose brush grazing helps reduce wildfire risk across the state, including in Elk Grove and West Sacramento.

He said in an interview with The Bee that he could be forced to sell his herd if the state doesn’t change its interpretation of a labor law requiring him to pay overtime to his seven goat herders. They typically work eight hours a day but also live on the job and are on-call 24-7.

What’s happening?

Until recently, the California Employment Development Division held that goat herders, like sheep herders, could be paid an alternative minimum wage — $2,488.97 a month — in lieu of the standard minimum of $14 an hour for employers like Arrowsmith.

However, Arrowsmith said that on March 1 he learned that the California Labor Commissioner’s Office determined that the alternative minimum wage only applies to sheep herders, not to those who herd other livestock, including goats.

The Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, said this was nothing new and that the agency “has consistently determined that the alternative minimum wage applies only to workers engaged in sheepherding, and not herding of other livestock.”

Arrowsmith said this interpretation is proving costly.

“It takes a wage from about $4,000 to about $14,000 a month,” he said.

Arrowsmith has been lobbying government officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom; Katie Hagen, the director of the Department of Industrial Relations; and Nancy Farias, the director of the Employment Development Department, to change the interpretation.

He said that he will be renewing the visas for his temporary ag workers, many of whom come from Peru and elsewhere overseas, in the next 30 to 60 days.

“And at that point, this language has to be changed or we’ll have to look at selling our herd,” he said.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, drafted a letter to Hagen and Farias on May 16, along with 21 other lawmakers — Assemblymembers and Senators, Republicans and Democrats — calling on the directors to “correct this error” so that goats like those belonging to Arrowsmith can continue doing their work.

“Goats, like sheep, are used for vegetation management and fuel load reduction. In agriculture and flood control systems (i.e. levees), these livestock are used for vegetation management; preventing the need for machine operated control or herbicide application,” Gallagher wrote in his letter.

In a statement to The Bee, the California Department of Industrial Relations said that, “Both EDD and the Labor Commissioner are aligned that sheep and goat herders perform nearly identical work, although the statute provides an alternative minimum wage only for sheep herding. The state is actively exploring options.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 3:00 AM.