Agricultural Equipment Operators

Job description

Workers will perform assign duties as instructed by their supervisor.
Workers must have a drivers license required by State and Federals laws, and drivers responsible for transporting workers will be required to have a valid and unexpired Federal Farm Labor Contractor or Federal Farm Labor Contractor Employee Registration with driving authorization. Will be responsible for operating the vehicles used to move crops on the farm. Must be able to safely operate the buses that are used to transport workers to and from work sites. Operate forklifts and equipment used to move supplies and harvesting equipment in the field. Maintain harvest equipment. Must be able to reach, bend and lift items weighing 100 pounds.
The alternative work if needed will be to assist with general farm work and the manual labor with the crops.
Greenhouse Tobacco- first workers will help fill tobacco trays with a composite dirt, then they will seed to the trays with tobacco seeds, and at last they will place each tray in the designated area of the greenhouse. Workers will then need to help fill the greenhouses with water and water the greenhouses as needed. When the plants have grown workers will need to help mow the plants to keep at a certain height until they are ready to be transplanted to the ground.
PROPAGATION: Workers will take cuttings from existing plants and bundle with like cuttings until targeted quantities are achieved. Workers will then stick cuttings into trays of soil or sand beds by hand. PLANTING: Workers will work on a conveyor belt to fill empty growing containers with soil mix. Workers will then set these containers down by hand on growing block (depending on container size workers may carry as many as four containers in each hand). Workers will use a drill to create a hole in the center of each can of soil, and fill each drilled hole with a plant liner, covering the hole firmly. SPACING: Using a spacing rack, workers will position container plants in a grid pattern, carrying container plants from an adjacent location on the block or using a cart or trailer to transport. SHEARING: Workers will use either hand shears or machine shears to shear the top and/or sides of the plants on a particular block location. Shearing specifications will vary by plant variety and supervisor/foreman will instruct worker of each variety needs. PULLING/LOADING: Workers will harvest container plants by loading noted varieties on trailers. Workers are responsible for ensuring correct variety and size according to pull tags and also those plants pulled are uniform in regard to height, width, etc. Workers will load harvested plants onto racks for the purpose of distribution. Plants may weigh (75 to 100Lbs). The worker in order to perform this kind of work must be able to work outside for at least 6 hours a day in all kinds of weather and be in a possession of the requisite physical strength and endurance, working quickly and skillfully with their hands repeatedly.

Tobacco: The short period of plantation: Workers are to first load up the tobacco machines with trays of tobacco plant, 6-8 tobacco trays depending on the machine, and a few extra on top if needed. Workers will ride on tobacco machine and pull a bunch of tobacco plants from the tobacco trays and drop one tobacco plant in each cup in front of you as it spins in a circle. There are approximately 6 to 10 cups you must continuously drop a tobacco plant inside after it has emptied the previous tobacco plant. When setting tobacco by machine the worker must drop one plant in each cone repeatedly every two seconds without missing a cone. Any cone missed will be then set out by hand. Once a tobacco tray has emptied out you must turn the tobacco tray holder to continue onto the rest of the tobacco trays until finished. Once you have finished the tobacco trays you will come to a stop and you will unload the empty trays and load 6-8 or how many are need to continue throughout the day.

Special Requirements

This type of work, involves working conditions that require tremendous stamina, a high level of physical activity in cold or extremely hot conditions in direct sunlight and in adverse weather such as rain. The work requires a high level of physical conditioning.
CDL Class A or B with passenger endorsement Drivers license or an approved valid international CDL approved by US, Mexico, and Canada required by State and Federals laws, and a valid and unexpired Federal Farm Labor Contractor or Federal Farm Labor Contractor Employee Registration with driving authorization.