Farmworker

Job description

Crops/Commodities:
crops include, but are not limited to, asparagus, cucurbits, sweet corn, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, Romanesco, hops, parsley, herbs.
This job requires a minimum of 3 months of verifiable agricultural employment experience, preferably on a vegetable 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. This is hard, strenuous labor, under cold, wet conditions in the spring, and extreme heat and humidity in the summer.

Plant, cultivate and harvest fruits and vegetables for fresh-market and/or processing. Will use hand tools, including, but not limited to, shovels, hoes and knives. Work on planter, planting roots, seeds and bulbs. Spread plastic or other groundcovering and clean plastic by hand from ground upon removal. Till soil, weed and thin plants. Transplant plants by hand. Stake/tie plants, trellis/prune plants, and set poles and wires for vine plants. Pick, cut, lift, or pull crops to harvest them. Tie vegetables in bunches or top them. Grade, size and field pack product. Apply pesticides, fertilizer and crop protectants. Place irrigation pipe and fittings. Considerable stooping and kneeling is required. Care must be taken to prevent damaging produce and plants. Assist with farm building/field maintenance and repairs.

Install/maintain irrigation systems and water lines. Move and install irrigation pipes and equipment. Dig and maintain ditches. Install and remove levee gates.

To provide a safe and healthy crop, workers must have or will be trained in USDA GAP certification standards and must abide by those standards. Failure to do so will be grounds for dismissal.

Dig and prepare ground. Propagate and plant hops. Cut rhizomes and store in cold storage until planting. Fill bins with potting soil. Plant rhizome pieces in pot and place pots in greenhouse. 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. 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. Fix loose/missing strings. Fix non-compliant acreage immediately. Manually train (wrap) hop bines on string. Training hops will require special care not to damage bine. 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. Pick up bines and hop clusters from ground behind combine and put into truck. Place bale cloth on the truck front and latch/unlatch truck. Cut bale cloth with heated 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. Cut hop bines in the field. Unload hop trailers and hang hop bines in the picking machine. Drive truck/tractor from hop field to picking machine with hop bines.

Workers will be required to harvest crops by hand and work in the fields for long periods of time. Workers will work in the packing house packing vegetables. Workers are expected to perform duties including boxing, weighing and loading of product. Workers will assist in loading/ unloading trucks with product weighing up to and including 60 pounds and lifting to a height of 5 feet for long periods of time. Workers must be able to work on their feet in bent positions, and must be able to bend and stoop for long periods of time. Work requires repetitive movements and extensive walking.

Special Requirements

This job requires a minimum of 3 months of verifiable agricultural employment experience, preferably on a vegetable 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. This is hard, strenuous labor, under cold, wet conditions in the spring, and extreme heat and humidity in the summer. Applicants must be able to furnish verifiable job reference(s) or comparable third party documentation from recent employer(s) establishing acceptable prior experience. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs. repeatedly throughout the course of the day.