PORTLAND, Ore. -- Threemile Canyon Farms, Oregon's largest dairy, has hired almost 30 refugees in recent months, most arriving from camps in Africa.

Rose Corral, the director of human resources, told the Capital Press newspaper that the dairy located in the Eastern Oregon city of Boardman had been having trouble meeting its labor needs. Then a farm manager learned from a radio report that the International Rescue Committee, a relief agency, sought job opportunities for refugees living in the Northwest.

The IRC helped settle the refugees into the Boardman area, and the workers car pool with other employees to get to work.

The refugees have proven to be excellent workers, Corral said. All are adapting to their new environment, despite a language barrier that restricts communication with the largely Spanish-speaking work force. Corral said the only complaint has been from refugees wanting to know why so much of their paycheck goes to taxes.

The new workers, some of whom spent years in refugee camps, gained asylum through the IRC for a variety reasons, Corral said. One man, Halmat Omar, fled Iraq after being targeted by insurgents.

Corral said many of the workers had experience in farm labor, but it was a far different type of experience than what they are doing at Threemile Canyon Farms.

"They might have had two cows or worked a rice planter in the past," she said.

Though Threemile Canyon doesn't expect to get most of its employees from refugee camps, Corral said she envisions the program continuing to help fill the needs of the dairy and the refugees.

"It's a great resource and a humanitarian thing to do," Corral said.