PALISADE — More than 300 local job-seekers have trooped into Talbott Farms' office this year to inquire about jobs in the orchards and vineyards.

Still, out in the fields, most of the workers doing the early thinning and spraying have come here on temporary guest-worker visas from Mexico.

It is not that Talbott and other growers don't want to hire fellow Americans hurting from extended unemployment. But many of those job-seekers aren't willing to tackle the tough, low- wage, long-hour farm labor.

"They miss a lot of work. They come when they want to come. They get bored," said Mario Moreno, a crew leader for Talbott.

The voluminous regulations attached to bringing in H-2A guest agricultural workers require that employers exhaust all attempts to hire Americans before giving jobs to foreign workers.

Employers say the H-2A workers are willing to work the long hours and, as their visas require, will stick with the job until after the harvest. Those workers also don't want to jeopardize pay that at the end of one day in the orchards adds up to a week's pay in Mexico.

Many have agriculture experience. And many return to the same U.S. farms year after year, which means they can do the work without much oversight.

"I'm doing my level best to support the local economy, but it's tough," said Theresa High, who operates High Country Orchards, down the road from Talbott.

High Country has had similar trouble with local workers leaving jobs once they realize picking fruit for long hours is not the fun they had envisioned.

During boom times, locals often don't bother to look to the orchards and farm fields for jobs. But when construction and energy-drilling jobs went away, the unemployed began to consider unskilled farm work that generally pays about $8 an hour.

Bill Thoennes, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said employers must walk a fine line when they spell out the difficulties of the work without seeming to intimate that they don't want to hire local workers.

John Harold of Tuxedo Corn in Olathe said he gets few local applicants because word has gotten around that his work days begin at 6 a.m.

"It's amazing how few have applied this year," he said.

"A big challenge"

At Talbott, the largest fruit operation in the Grand Valley, hundreds of job-seekers asked about employment this year and last. This spring, only 15 of the workers sent out by the Mesa County Workforce Center submitted applications.

Nine showed up for work. Four of those were gone after a week. One remains on the crew, and he is missing work this day because he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving the previous night.

"It's a big challenge. Almost all of them have a background that makes them difficult to employ," said Bruce Talbott as he pulled out a slip of paper where he had tallied the hours put in by domestic hires compared with the H-2A workers.

The locals worked 37 to 55 hours a week while the H-2A workers were in the orchards for about 70 hours.

Talbott said some of the locals are hard workers, "but they have never seen a fruit tree before."

He said because he has seen desperation in their eyes this year, he tries to hire them despite the challenges. In doing so, he runs the risk of not having enough workers at harvest time. If his American workers quit, it will be too late to apply for more H-2A workers.

A requirement that employers anticipate the shortage of local workers and apply for H-2A workers at least 45 days before the workers are needed is just one of the complications of the guest-worker program.

The jobs must be advertised in newspapers and on radio stations and posted at job service centers. Employers must hire local workers if they are "able, willing, qualified and available."

Decline in requests

Voluminous record-keeping is required for every step.

The H-2A rules changed in mid- March under the Obama administration to raise wages and call for mandatory inspections of housing. Farmworker rights groups are applauding the changes as being more protective of workers. For many growers, the regulations are more costly and cumbersome.

The combination of more available domestic workers and H-2A rules has resulted in a decline in requests for the workers in Colorado.

In 2008, Colorado growers put in 153 applications for nearly 2,000 guest workers. This year, 96 growers have asked for 1,036 guest workers.

Still, Moreno said, the guest workers do the bulk of the jobs in the orchards.

"They do the work," he said. "The others