Farmworkers And Laborers, Crop

Job duties

Original text, as filed with the Department of Labor.

Duties may vary from time to time. Workers will perform assigned duties as instructed by their supervisor. Workers will lay plastic to build bed of strawberry fields and plant strawberries from containers from specified locations.

Fruit pickers harvest, sort and gather fruit with their hands. Gently remove fruit from branches and vines making sure not to damage fruit. Pickers are expected to work quickly and efficiently. Strawberries grow on low-lying plants, so you must have the endurance and strength to bend over for a long period of time. You will need to be kneeled for a long period of time collecting the strawberries, once you have removed fruit from the plant you will need to place them in a bucket carefully so no injury may occur to them. Once the container is full, you will take to the shed or designated quality area (located on the farm). Fruit pickers must be detail-oriented, fast, and reliable so they can remove fruit without loss.

Prune strawberry bushes by hand using pruning shears and loppers. Remove debris from fields using hoes, shovels, baskets, etc. Worker must be able to withstand working in the direct sunlight and weather conditions ranging from hot and humid weather, moderate rain and cold while performing their required duties. Fruit harvesters must carefully, yet quickly, inspect fruit and bushes for signs of disease, insect manifestations, worms, rot and remove or replace bushes as directed by farm manager. Each worker must pick the plants clean of all ripe fruit. It is the picker's responsibility to sort good product from contaminated or rotting fruit to ensure produce is routed to appropriate facilities for cleaning and distribution.

Shovel, haul, spread manure, dig holes, ditches, and trenches. Use hand tools such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives. Duties may include tilling soil, applying fertilizers, transplanting, pulling weeds, raking, cleaning around shed area, thinning or pruning crops, applying pesticides, cleaning, grading, and packing harvested product.

Inspect field irrigation systems; replace damaged pipes, valves, water jets, sprinklers, etc. using necessary equipment. Use hand tools such as: shovels, hoes, brooms, scissors, shears, and knives. Duties also include cleaning, loading, and unloading harvested products. May be asked to drive a tractor in strawberry fields spraying herbicides, spreading fertilizer, plowing, and laying plastic.

Blueberries & Blackberries: Manually plant, cultivate, harvest, sort, and grade blueberries and blackberries. Prune bushes using pruning shears and loppers. Workers may receive adequate harvesting equipment to harvest and carry 2 1-gallon picking buckets as they move down assigned rows picking all ripe berries, placing them in the bucket. Each worker must pick the plants clean of all ripe fruit. When buckets are filled, the worker will take to the Supervisor where it will be weighed, and worker will be given credited weight amount. Harvest by use of mechanical equipment, load and transport berries to processing shed (located on farm). Use hand tools, shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, knives, and baskets as needed.

Requirements

2 months prior experience required in agricultural labor.

Benefits and conditions