Farm Workers
Employer
3062 US Highway 1 N
Lyons, GA 30436
United States
Job description
Crops/Commodities:
Nursery Stock, pecans, olives, onions and watermelons.
Perform manual labor to plant, cultivate, harvest, grade and pack watermelon and Vidalia onions. Perform tasks associated with the outdoor production of horticultural products. Cultivate, prune, thin, and maintain nursery stock, pecan trees and olive plants. Prepare fields/soil for planting/transplanting. All job activities are required to be done cautiously as not to damage growing crops or product. Harvest Vidalia onions by picking up onions, clipping top and roots using shears, placing in bucket, walking to bin and dumping bucket into bin, or handing bucket to a dumper. Dumpers will empty buckets and give the harvester back the empty bucket with a token/ticket. Unload and load boxes of onions by hand and using machinery. Open fields by moving onions from one row to another row to open up a driveway for the machinery. Transplant watermelon; carry a tray of plants down the row, or ride a transplanter, and gently place seedlings into holes previously made by equipment and adequately pack dirt around each plant. Tend to and water seedlings. Move vines and fruit in the field in order to prevent damage by cultivation or harvest. Walk fields and uproot unwanted weeds and plants by hand and place in designated areas. Harvest, grade, sort and load watermelons using hand tools. During the cutting process, a farm worker walks in a designated area selecting mature watermelons to be harvested by sight only. Once a watermelon has been selected for harvest, the cutter will sever the watermelon from the vine with a knife and place it in the designated area. The selection of mature watermelons to be harvested is based on appearance only considering the variances in shape, size, weight, and external color while also considering other factors such as location of vine, age of crop, number of times crop has been cut, growing conditions of crop, as well as variety of watermelons. Once the watermelon is severed from the vine, cutters determine the grade or class of the watermelon and discard any watermelons with defects which render them unmarketable. During the loading process, a farm worker walks in a designated area while lifting preselected watermelons, then pitches the watermelons to another farm worker who catches the watermelons and pitches them to another farm worker or gently places them in the designated area or transport vehicle. Watermelons are unloaded and packed by hand using aid of conveyor belts and sizing machines. In the packing process, watermelons are unloaded from harvest transport vehicle where employees lift watermelons from harvest vehicle and pass to another employee who gently places the watermelon on the in feed conveyer. The watermelon then travels into the packing facility where it is graded by hand and disbursed to the correct packing station by the sizing machine. Worker then lifts the fruit from the sizing station and gently places watermelons in bin while assuring count and pack layout for each bin is correct for their sizing station. Erecting boxes, placing pallets at stations and placing boxes at stations is a duty necessary to keep production flowing and is part of the packing process. Remove cull stock, debris, tree stumps, brush, ferns, vines and other growth from planting area. Plant/pot seeds, plants/cuttings and trees. Prepare trees for digging by tying or wrapping as necessary. Perform general plant maintenance. Irrigate and apply fertilizer. Train, prune, trim, shear and space trees and/or plants. Shear trees with proper taper and bud cut angle. Tie/position trees and plants by tying or wrapping as necessary. Count, inventory, and grade trees. Select trees for cutting according to grade. Cut trees using axe or chainsaw. Drag cut trees from cutting area. Bale trees using tree baler. Wrap burlap or other covering around root balls and secure with twine and/or staples. Label, tag, pull, sort, and store plants by variety.
Special Requirements
One month of verifiable farm work experience is required. Walk, bend, reach, stoop, push, pull, lift, carry and load up to 50 lbs. for prolonged periods of time. Perform repetitive movements. Most job duties require workers to work in extremely hot and/or wet weather.