Farmworker/laborer

Job description

Farm Laborer:
Worker will perform tasks in orchard maintenance which may include but are not limited to the following:

Fruit Tree Planting: In nursery and orchard, fruit trees will be unbundled and handled with care as not to break and damage young trees. Trees are planted mechanically with a planter and by hand. Worker will ride the machine and place trees in the holes/trench as the machine moves along the row. Tree graft union height will be adjusted by pulling the tree until at a specific height as instructed by supervisor. Worker will straighten tree and compact soil around tree. Worker will be required to unload boxes of trees to be planted. Some workers will walk behind planter to ensure proper planting. Worker will also assist in replacing dead trees in established orchards. Worker will use shovel to manually remove dead tree and replace with new tree.
Fruit Tree Transplanting: Worker will remove existing tree from the ground using a shovel and transplant to new location following steps described for fruit tree planting.
Trellis system construction/install: Worker will place anchor post, end angle post and of inline post in ground using equipment such as : excavator, tractor, loader with auger, and loader with anchor attachment, and tools such as shovel or posthole digger. Posts may need to be re-aligned after placement with shovel, posthole digger, and level. Worker will drill post to install wire and then install tree support. Worker may work on ground, motorized platform or up to a 15' ladder. Worker will be required to lift up to 60 pounds.

Orchard/Trellis removal: Worker will remove wire, tree support, posts, and anchors. Worker may use equipment such as a tractor as directed by supervisor.

Irrigation installation: Worker will install irrigation lines, headers, mainline, valves, micro sprinklers, and other irrigation equipment as directed by supervisor.

Irrigation maintenance: Worker will be required to check and maintain all working components of irrigation
system including: irrigation lines, micro sprinklers, headers, mainlines, valves, and other irrigation equipment. Workers will be required to repair leaks as directed by supervisor.

Drain tile repair: Worker will repair drain tile with mechanical or hand equipment. This will include digging of
current drain tile.

Field/Orchard debris removal: Worker will complete farm clean up tasks that include picking up rocks, roots,
brush, old string, wire from trellis orchard blocks and garbage removal as instructed by supervisor.

General hand tasks: Worker will complete tasks to care for fruit trees including weeding, hoeing, trunk
painting, picking up rocks, hand fertilizing, and growth selection by hand and clipping. Worker will maintain pre-set grafting
throughout season.

Fence maintenance: Worker will remove all unnecessary material around or in fence.

Weeding: Worker may be required to keep orchard weed free, removing weeds by hand or with hand equipment.

Trunk painting: Worker will manually paint trunks of young trees using paint and paint brush.

Pallet bin placement: Worker will load and unload empty bins by hand and place bins in orchard or in loading areas as instructed.

Pallet bin repair: Worker will maintain and repair pallet bins before and during harvest using hand tools.

Pallet bin cleaning: Worker will inspect and remove any debris found within and on the outside of the pallet bin. If debris cannot be removed, pallet bin will be set aside and supervisor will be notified.

Special Requirements

3 verifiable months of commercial agriculture experience in fruit required. Applicants must furnish job references from recent employers within the past 3 years establishing acceptable prior experience.

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 one 18 bushel box per hour for apple hand harvest of strip pick and color pick.

Drug testing not utilized as pre-employment tool. See work rule #5 for more information regarding post-employment drug testing