Farmworker/laborer - Harvest (i)

Job description

Job Specifications Include:
1. Train and position apple trees and plants to trellis, including clipping and tying limbs and shoots to wire from the ground or ladder up to 16 feet in height, or from a motorized platform.
2. Complete farm clean up tasks to include picking up garbage around the orchard and fields, picking up roots and rocks, removing old string and wire from trellis and orchard/field blocks, and other hand tasks.
3. Paint tree trunks and posts.
4. If worker is eligible to drive under Michigan law and provides proof of no infractions from official source, Employer may require worker to drive to and from the worksite in vehicles with less than 15 passenger capacity and to locations within 30 miles as directed. To be eligible for driving job, worker must understand and agree to driving rules, as outlined in work rules below.
5. Safely operate tractor and other farm vehicles as directed..
6. Plant and complete other hand tasks to establish and maintain orchard and field areas, including shoveling, picking up roots and rocks, staking, weeding.
7. Sort harvested apples for quality standards and inform worker of quality deficiencies. Use and understand basic handheld electronic devices. Mark apple bins at .75 full using scanning barcode system and printer.
8. Repair boxes with hammers and nail guns.
9. Roll out and clean up tarps throughout orchard as instructed.
10. Lift, push and place heavy posts.
11. Clean farm vehicles as assigned.
12. Assist with organizing farmworker housing prior to subsequent worker arrivals, including cleaning, organizing inventory and housing repairs.
13. Assist in reviewing cold storage rooms for any air leaks and will repair leak. Clean cold storage rooms in accordance with food safety requirements.
14. Set up and operate irrigation equipment. Maintain and repair irrigation and climate control systems.
15. Maintain inventories of materials, equipment, or products.
16. Monitor and repair wind machines.
17. Repair farm buildings, fences, and other structures
18. Dig, cut, and transplant seedlings, cuttings, and trees
19. Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements, and mechanical equipment.
20. Identify plants, pests, and weeds, input findings into cloud-based tracking system.

Pay will be hourly.

Thinning: Thinning is a manual process used to control the size and quality of grown fruit. Remove the smallest fruit blossom, bud and/or identifiable fruit from within a cluster of other fruits. Identify and remove fruit that is misshapen, damaged and/or with other quality problems as directed by supervisors.
Tools utilized: Ladders up to 16 foot (40 lbs); driving/riding motorized platform

Special Requirements

Season Commitment: Job offered requires worker be available for and worker agrees to work every day that work is available for entire employment period.
Worker must be able to perform job description duties in safe manner consistent with established safety procedures.
Worker must possess requisite physical strength and endurance to repeat harvest process throughout workday. Worker must work at sustained pace and make good faith efforts to work efficiently as reasonable under working conditions and consistent with amount, quality and efficiency of 1 acre per day for pruning, 1 box per hour and a half for Golden Delicious apple harvest, 1 box per 2 hours for Honeycrisp harvest and box per hour for all other variety apple harvest.
Field work begins at assigned time shortly after daylight. Work may be scheduled during moderate rain, in high humidity, when trees are wet with dew/rain, and in temperatures as low as 15 degrees F and up to 100 degrees F.