Agricultural Equipment Operators

Job description

Workers will perform assign duties as instructed by their supervisor. Workers must have the correct type of 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. Workers will operate equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, irrigation equipment, machinery to haul crops, supplies, tools, farmworkers, plant, cultivate, harvest, till soil and store crops. Must be able to detect equipment malfunctions and notify the supervisors when machinery malfunctions. 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.
The alternative work if needed will be to assist with general farm work and the manual labor with the crops.

Rogueing: the worker will walk down the aisles between the plants in the corn fields, removing the corn plants that are from a different species leaving the field ready for detasseling.
Corn detasseling: the worker will walk down the aisles between the plants in the corn fields, removing the spikes that are left after the detasseling machine passes through. Workers will remove the spikes and drop them on the ground.
Seed Corn Sorting: After the machine harvests the seed corn from the fields, the corn cobs will be put on a conveyor belt so the workers can sort the corn cubs by size and class.
Planting of fruits and vegetables: A tractor will go over the fields making holes for the plants, workers will grab a tray of plants from the truck, walking down the rows the worker will put one plants per hole, when finish with the tray, the worker will walk back to the truck and grab another tray of plants, repeating the process through the work day. Harvesting of Fruit and Vegetables: Once at the picking location, doing a row at a time, workers will move down the rows plucking the crop from the plants and putting them in a container. Once the container is full the worker will take the container to the truck and dump the content. The worker will go back to his picking area and fill his container up again, repeating the process through the work day. Potato Planting: Potato planting is done by machine, with a sharp knife; workers will cut the seed potatoes in four and put the pieces into the machine, once the machine is ready for planting it will be taken to the fields. Potatoes Harvesting: The worker will pick the potatoes up from the ground placing them in a 5/8 BU bucket, once the bucket is full, the worker will take the bucket to the truck and dump the potatoes in the back of the truck, repeating the process throughout the day. Sorting potatoes: Potatoes will be harvested by machine and put in a conveyor belt; workers will stand by the conveyor belt and sort the potatoes by size and quality at the same time workers will need to remove debris.

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.