Orchard Worker I
Employer
10273 Lummisville Rd.
Wolcott, NY 14590
United States
Job description
Crops/Commodities:
apples, hops.
Apples: Workers will manually plant, cultivate and harvest apples; use hand tools, such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears and knives. Duties include tilling soil, transplanting, weeding, thinning or pruning; applying fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.
Identify plants, pests and weeds to determine the selection and application of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Inform farm managers of crop progress. Clear and maintain irrigation ditches. Record information about crops, such as pesticide use, yields or costs.
Prune trees seasonally to promote optimum growth of tree and fruit. Gather pruned branches from area for disposal. Perform pruning and suckering by cutting terminal growth and water sprouts from inside of tree using hand pruner. Thins trees from orchard to eliminate diseased or nonproductive trees using chain saw. Drive/operate utility vehicles and row crop tractors.
Hops: Mow/rake hop bines. Operate pickers and/or dryers. Dig and prepare ground. Plant roots or pots. Pick up pots after planting. Cut roots off hill with hop knife. Wash and separate roots. Cut roots to length and bundle roots. Load roots/plants onto trailers or trucks. Stack, stage, and haul roots/pots. Remove broken or damaged poles and install a new pole. Ensure all hop poles are vertically straight and tamped into place. Manually remove weeds by hand or with digging tools. Weeding baby hop yards requires special care to detour damaging bines. Manually remove drip tubing from hop plants and place at center of the hill to avoid damage. Roll, tie, and install tube with utility vehicle and tubing roller. Re-tie broken tubes to nearest string. Excess or repeated damage to drip tubes may result in suspension or discharge. Load string bundles onto string cart. Top tie string to trellis. "Pogo" hop strings into hop hills with hop clips. Fix loose/missing strings. Fix non-compliant acreage immediately. Hills found without clips may result in suspension or discharge. No unused string may be discarded in the field. Manually train (wrap) hop bines on string. Training hops will require special care not to damage bine. Pick up bines and hop clusters from ground behind combine and put into truck. Cut bale cloth with hot knife. Bale and sew hop bales. Stencil hop bales. Clean and sweep baler floor. Mix hops with pitchfork and push hops to pit. Track harvest information on sheet. Sort plants and separate hop plants by untangling vine. Take care not to damage hop vine. Till soil and prepare field for planting. Plant pots in field.
Machine Operation: Under direction of management, workers will operate farm equipment to till soil and to plant, cultivate, spray and aid in the production and harvest of apples and hops. Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify management when machinery malfunctions.
Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions. Irrigate soil, using portable pipes or ditch systems, and maintain ditches or pipes and pumps. Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders into sprayer machinery. Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, trailers, and irrigation equipment. Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery. Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools. Use machinery to mow grass, cut brush, plant young trees, spray fruit trees, apply soil amendments, install trellis systems and perform other equipment related activities involved in tree fruit/ hops production. Operate tractors and trucks on farm property to move equipment and supplies such as irrigation pipes, chemicals, fertilizers, herbicides, ladders, bins and harvest supplies.
Workers may help with the pruning, thinning, and other manual labor duties, as directed by management.
Special Requirements
This job requires a minimum of three months of verifiable prior experience working in an orchard, performing tasks involved in the operation of tractors and farm equipment associated with the production of fruit trees. Applicants must be able to furnish verifiable job reference(s) or comparable third party documentation from recent employer(s) establishing acceptable prior experience. Workers must be able to perform activities with accuracy and efficiency. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs. Employer-paid post-hire drug and alcohol testing required after an accident at work.
Employer Contact Info
https://labor.ny.gov/careerservices/CareerServicesIndex.shtm