Job Description: General Farm Worker
General Farm Workers are hired on crop, livestock, fruit and vegetable, and livestock farms and perform a variety of manual skilled and unskilled jobs around a farm by hand and with various farm equipment. Employees at this position will plant, cultivate, and harvest crops, raise and maintain livestock and poultry, operate, maintain and repair farm equipment, machinery, and buildings. The applicant will need to be able to drive trucks, tractors, and harvesting equipment.
Livestock duties may include feeding and watering cattle, horses, poultry, other livestock, and pets. Applicant must be willing to clean and muck out stables, pens, barns, and kennels using whatever tools necessary, maintaining a clean and healthy environment. They will need to be able to spot injury and diseases in animals and administer simple medications. Duties include milking cows, and managing poultry and egg operations. Candidate will stack loose hay using a pitchfork, bale hay, and needs the strength to be able to stack hay bales, and load them onto wagons and trucks using hand hooks.
Crop duties include plowing, harvesting, fertilising, cultivating, and spraying crops using a variety of tractors, plows, harrows, harvesters, and other heavy equipment, as well as a variety of hand tools. They may need to dig seedlings and seed beds, using a hoe and rake, and transplant by hand as necessary. They will need to dig and clear irrigation ditches using shovel and hoe, lay PVC irrigation pipe, and operate sluice gates to irrigate and water crops. The applicant will need to be able to spot diseases and pests in crops, and apply sprays and dusting to treat them. They will need to be able to recognize when crops are ready, and pick, pull, or cut fruits and vegetables and prepare them for market.
General duties include maintaining and repairing barns, farm and out-buildings, fences, and other farm related structures. Responsible for cleaning, maintaining, and repairing plows, tractors, harvesters, and combines using water and hand tools. General Farm Worker will need to be able to work hard, long hours under adverse weather conditions. After experience and evaluation, general farm worker may be able to become specialized in one or more areas of agriculture.
