Orchard Laborer
Employer
67 Industrial Circle
Martinsburg, WV 25403
United States
Job description
Manually plant, cultivate, and harvest fruit and vegetables including; cherries, strawberries, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, corn, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squash, cucumbers, melons, okra, and pumpkins. Use hand tools, such as, shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks and shears, knives, hammers, and saws. Duties including manually cultivating all the different crops, hand thinning of any of the different crops, pruning, weeding, removing problem vines. Construct and repair trellis systems, repair and painting of farm fences and buildings. The sorting and repairing bulk bins. Tying, strapping, and taping of different crops, the irrigation of plants. Using riding mowers, push mowers, and weedeaters to mow around orchard property. Application of electrical post and wires, and applying tree wraps for deer and groundhog control. Occasionally, driving tractors to pick up garbage and brush in the orchard, pulling picking wagons forward, and possibly setting bins out for picking once it is proven that you are competent enough on a tractor. Manually picking up roots, rocks, old plastic and the laying of new plastic in prep for new plantings. Possibly working in packing shed when needed. Picking apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, and plums for fresh marketing and/or processing.
Special Requirements
Productivity must be at least 100-bushel boxes per day of fresh market fruit. All fruit to be handled with care to avoid bruising. Fruit injured by bruising shall not exceed 2% as defined in the U.S. standard for grades. Workers must be able to pick tree fruit, most of which is done from ladders, with the lower branches being picked from the ground. Picked fruit is placed in a molded plastic canvas covered picking bucket, with canvas straps that slip over the head and rest on the shoulders. Filled buckets weighing up to 60 pounds are emptied into bulk bins with capacity ranging between 13, 1 and 1/8th bushel boxes to 25, 1 and 1/8th bushel boxes. Workers are to handle ladders up to 24-foot-long and weighing about 2 pounds per foot. Inform farmers or farm managers of crop progress. Must be physically able to lift up to 75 pounds on a consistent basis throughout the day. Due to safety concerns of a farm, workers must understand some basic instruction in English.