Farm Laborer

Job description

Crops/Commodities:
greenhouse plants, hay, vegetables (including sweet corn, melons, beans, cucumbers, peppers) strawberries, tomatoes and pumpkins.
This job requires a minimum of three months of prior experience working on a diversified vegetable crop farm handling both manual and machine tasks associated with commodity production and harvest activities. Workers must be able to perform manual as well as mechanized activities with accuracy and efficiency. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Plants, cultivates and harvests vegetables and hay. Works on planter, plants roots, seeds and bulbs. May spread plastic or other groundcovering. Weeds, thins plants. Transplants plants, riding on transplanter or by hand. May set poles and wires for vine plants. Picks, cuts, lifts, or pulls crop to harvest them. May assist with irrigation. May operate and help maintain tractors or hand-operated equipment. May assist with general farm building maintenance.

Crops grown on the farm include greenhouse plants, hay, vegetables (including sweet corn, melons, beans, cucumbers, peppers) tomatoes, and pumpkins.

Workers will perform work including but not limited to planting, digging, mulching, transplanting, mowing, and watering in seasonal holding houses. Count and inventory plants. Propagate plants from cuttings. Remove plastic from seasonal holding houses in spring and cover seasonal holding houses with plastic in fall. Assist with building seasonal holding houses. Plants must be handled carefully so that minimal leaves, limbs and roots are broken during transplanting process. Performs any other duties involved in the maintenance of plant materials and seasonal holding houses.

Workers will transplant produce plants; harvest and maintain vegetable and hay crops, and evaluate readiness for harvest; cultivate and weed as needed; determine soil moisture and necessity to irrigate; operate farm tractors and trucks, vegetable transplanting equipment, commercial mowing equipment and weed eaters; scout crops for pests, disease and detrimental weeds; stake/tie, trellis and prune plants. Workers must be physically able to perform seeding, planting, mowing and heavy lifting. Considerable stooping and kneeling is required. Care must be taken to prevent damaging produce and plants.

Workers will operate tractors, mowing machines and balers to mow, cut and bale hay. Workers will load and stack bales onto a moving trailer and reload/restack the bales for storage. Workers must be able to repeatedly bend, stoop and lift 30-60 pound bales throughout a workday.

In addition, workers may be required to perform variable tasks such as the following: ditching, shoveling, hoeing, hauling, ground preparation, seasonal harvest festival/pumpkin patch activities, and other tasks related to general farming.

Work may also include mechanized field work using power equipment. By way of example and not limitation power equipment may include tractors, planters, cultivators and other equipment. Workers will be expected to be able to operate agricultural equipment with or without direction.

Work is to be done for long periods of time. Workers should be able to work on their feet in bent positions for long periods of time. Work requires repetitive movements and extensive walking. Allergies to ragweed, goldenrod, insect spray, related chemicals, etc. may affect workers’ ability to perform the job. Workers are exposed to wet weather early in the morning through the heat of the day, working in fields. Temperatures may range from 10 to 100 F. Workers may be required to work during occasional showers not severe enough to stop field operations. Workers should be physically able to do the work required with or without reasonable accommodations. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs.

Special Requirements

This job requires three months of prior experience working on a diversified vegetable crop farm handling both manual and machine tasks associated with commodity production and harvest activities. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs.