Livestock Worker, Laborer

Job description

Workers will perform duties associated with the employer’s winter and early-spring calving season, which creates a temporary, peak need for labor from February through May. During this period, the number of newborn calves increases significantly, requiring intensive, hands-on care, frequent monitoring, and increased facility and pen maintenance due to cold fronts, wind, rain, and fluctuating temperatures common in Texas during these months. These duties represent a distinct seasonal cycle that occurs only during this part of the year and causes a workload that is far higher than the employer’s baseline staffing needs. Job duties include monitoring pregnant cattle for signs of labor; assisting with calving under the direction of a supervisor; tagging, weighing, and processing newborn calves; preparing and feeding milk or milk replacer; administering electrolytes or treatments as directed; and conducting repeated health checks to identify hypothermia, scours, respiratory issues, or distress. Workers will maintain dry and clean bedding; move calves and cows between pens, lots, and sheltered areas; adjust or repair windbreaks and calving shelters; ensure animals have continuous access to thawed, fresh water; and maintain a safe, dry environment to support calf survival during cold, wet, or windy weather.

Because Texas winter weather can shift rapidly, workers will also assist with weather-related facility upkeep, including maintaining water trough heaters, clearing excessive mud, ensuring drainage around pens, repairing shelters or fencing damaged by wind or storms, and preparing facilities for incoming fronts or rain events. Workers must be able to lift 50–75 lbs, work in cold, wet, or windy conditions, and be available for irregular hours such as nights, early mornings, weekends, and holidays when calving activity or weather conditions require immediate attention. This February–May period reflects a seasonally recurring peak in labor demand specific to the winter and early-spring calving cycle. Once calving concludes and weather stabilizes, these intensive duties decline, and the workload returns to the employer’s normal, non-peak levels for this type of operation. This seasonal need is separate and distinct from the employer’s other seasonal labor needs associated with unrelated tasks performed at different times of the year.

Special Requirements

Hours listed in Section A.6 are the anticipated hours to be worked. These hours could increase or decrease based on weather conditions, crop delay, pests or disease, crop yield, available labor, and or productivity. Use of cell phones during work hours is prohibited, supervisors will have phones in case of emergency.