Orchard Worker
Employer
10273 Lummisville Road
Wolcott, NY 14590
United States
Job description
Crops/Commodities:
apples, hops.
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. Construct trellises, repair fences and farm buildings or participate in irrigation activities. Operate tractors, tractor-drawn machinery and self-propelled machinery to plow, harrow and fertilize soil, or to plant, cultivate, spray and harvest crops. Repair and maintain farm vehicles, implements and mechanical equipment. 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. Workers will hand-pick apples for fresh market and/or processing. Productivity must be at least 4 bins (80 bushels) per day of fresh market apples and 5 bins (100 bushels) per day of processing fruit. Workers will make sure bins are clean and free of debris before placing harvested apples into the bins. Workers will load the bins onto the rail using a tractor. Worker places ladder firmly against or within tree in a secure position so as not to break limbs or knock off fruit and to prevent slipping or falling. All fruit is to be handled with care to avoid bruising. Fruit injured by bruising during picking shall not exceed 1% (WNY) for fresh and 1% (WNY) for processing. Each worker's picked fruit will be inspected according to instructions given each day by the orchard foreman. Workers will be directed to strip all fruit from tree at one picking or to spot pick (selective picking) according to size and color depending on crop conditions and state of maturity. Fruit picked as drops is never mixed with tree fruit.
Machine Operation: Drive/operate utility vehicles and row crop tractors. 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.
Special Requirements
This job requires a minimum of three months of verifiable prior experience working in tree fruit or vegetable crops, handling both manual and machine tasks associated with commodity production and harvest activities. 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 manual as well as mechanized activities with accuracy and efficiency. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs. Employer reserves the right to post-hire, employer-paid drug testing after an employee has an accident at work.