Farm Workers

Job description

Perform manual labor to plant, cultivate, harvest, grade pack greens, herbs, beets, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, cabbage, and sweet corn; plant, cultivate, harvest, grade, sort and pack blackberries and prune blackberry bushes; cultivate, harvest, grade, sort, and pack blueberries; cultivate, pollinate and detassel corn; and cultivate and harvest cotton.

Walk through assigned row while bending and reaching to pick ripe blueberries and blackberries by hand without bruising or damaging the fruit or bush. Workers must use care to pick bushes clean of all berries of the correct color and size, as instructed by their supervisor. Green and red berries must not be picked. Berries for fresh fruit markets must not be picked when wet. Defective and low quality fruit will not be accepted and must be discarded. Workers will not break skin, damage, drop or bruise produce, or leave any appropriate product on the plant during harvest. Workers must complete their own assigned rows as instructed by supervisor.

Berries will be graded and packed into clam shell containers in flat trays according to supervisor's instructions ensuring that there are no leaks. Once flat trays of clamshells are full, workers will carry two or three trays at one time to trailers located in the fields at the end of the rows where fruit is inspected for quality and weight. Berries may also be harvested into buckets which are then carried to the end of the rows for inspection and dumping.

Detassel corn by walking through corn fields, reaching to pull off the tassel of the corn plant and throwing it to the ground by hand. Walk throughout fields, pollinating, bending down to pull rogue plants, weeds and volunteer corn plants.

Pre-harvest duties include tilling soil, planting, re-planting, cultivating, weeding, using shears, knives and other various cultivation tools. Use hand tools such as shovels, tampers, pruning hooks, machetes, hoes and knives. Pull weeds or hoe weeds in the field. Install irrigation equipment, including laying and connecting pipes and hoses. Dig and maintain irrigation ditches, field roads and right-of-ways. Install or remove items required in plasticulture. Install or remove stakes, wire, netting or string using hammers, wire clippers and other tools. Remove or clean plant debris or vines from ground or trellises. Train vines or plants on strings or trellises. Harvest produce using tools such as knives, clippers and shears. Operate agricultural equipment to plow, harrow, plant, cultivate, or harvest crops. Grade, sort, wash, select, count, check, load, unload, label or pack harvested products. Crops may be harvested and field packed or packed in the shed. Stack boxes onto pallets, transport vehicles or trailers. Assemble cartons, crates and containers using hand tools. Grade and sort products according to specified factors and discard defective, inferior and/or foreign matter. Place acceptable products in specified containers according to grade. Clean and maintain materials, containers, packing facility, fields, work areas, grounds, and equipment. Operate, repair, and maintain farm vehicles and agricultural equipment.

Clean fields when harvest activities are complete. Workers will walk down rows, bending to prune and remove floricanes that are done producing fruit and tipping runners using hand pruners. Primocanes will be left unharmed by the removal process. Pruned canes will be piled in row middles. Workers must have a general understanding of how pruning affects competition with fruiting canes as instructed by supervisor. Improper pruning can cause problems with fruit load, fruit size, disease severity, and overall production.

Workers who apply for and obtain an FLC or FLC employee certificate of registration with driving authorized by the USDOL Wage and Hour Division during the employment period may transport workers and may be offered additional work hours.

Special Requirements

Three months of verifiable vegetable harvesting experience required. Perform prolonged walking, pushing, pulling, bending, stooping, heavy lifting and carrying up to 55 lbs. repeatedly. Perform repetitive movements. Work outside in inclement weather, especially extreme cold, heat and/or wet weather for extensive periods of time. Must be 18 or older. Employer is a drug free workplace. Drug testing is conducted post-hire at the employer's expense and is not part of the interview process. Negative results are required before starting work.