Farmworker

Job description

Planting, Cultivating and Harvesting Vegetables/Fruits - Duties may include but are not limited to: plant, cultivate, harvest and pack produce in boxes, buckets, and/or crates. May assist in set-up of product for sale of crop. When harvesting cabbage, asparagus, winter squash, pumpkins workers will cut selected produce with knife or shears and place in trailer drawn through field. Workers are also expected to perform task of packing, weighing, and loading trucks. Produce may include a variety of cucumbers, squash, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peppers, grapes, berries, asparagus, broccoli, beans, cantaloupes, peas, pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, corn, and other miscellaneous fruits or vegetables.

Grapes will include, planting, placing bamboo stakes, installing grow tubes, hilling up vines, installing trellis, weeding, hedging, pruning, tying up vines, cutting grass, harvesting. Workers may perform general indoor tasks or post-harvest activities when outdoor vineyard work is not available. All such activities will be performed incident to or in conjunction with vineyard operation.

Hay/Straw: Hay must be cut, raked and bailed, If square bales workers will move along rows of previously bailed haw/straw, bending, stooping and lifting bails, loading and stacking onto a truck or trailer for transport to storage area. If round bales they will be loaded with tractor on the truck or trailer for transport to storage area. Irrigation, ditching, hoeing, shoveling, placement and removal of plastic, spraying pesticides or herbicides, loading, unloading, and hauling.
Livestock will include assisting with delivery, apply or administer medications, vaccines and/or insecticides, mix feed and additives, feed, water, herd, clean/disinfect livestock corrals/stalls/sheds, castrate, brand, clip/tag and clamp livestock.
In addition to the duties listed above in connection with the crops, the worker may or may not be required to perform variable tasks such as the following:
Alternative work -General farm work will include maintain, drive, attach and operate farm implements/tractors/golf carts/ATV's and other related equipment connected with the duties listed above, make minor mechanical adjustments, repairs and service farm machinery, paint/repair farm structures, replace/repair fencing, perform general cleanup of farm areas, load and unload trucks, removal of rocks and clearing of land which is related to land preparation.

Special Requirements

Workers will be expected to conform to the specific instructions given for each days work. Assignments will be made by employer or a designated employee. Workers may be assigned a variety of duties in any given day and different tasks on the same day. Packaged produce may weigh from 50 to 75 pounds. Workers are exposed to wet weather early in the morning and through the heat of the day, working in fields. Temperatures may range from 30F to 110F. Workers may be required to work during occasional showers not severe enough to stop field operations. Employers will provide workers, without cost to them, with appropriate rain gear.Considerable bending is required. Workers should be able to work on their feet in bent, stooped or crouched positions for long periods of time and should be able to work in barns at heights of 10 to 30 feet if necessary. Allergies to grass, weeds, goldenrod, insect spray, related chemicals, etc., may affect workers ability to perform the work.