H-2A Sponsorship Jobs in Michigan

INTRODUCTION

Workers will perform various duties on a Christmas Tree farm which may include cultivating color tinting, baling, hauling, loading, and harvesting Christmas evergreen trees on a Christmas-tree farm.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Removes brush, ferns, and other growth from planting area using hand tools such as mattock, brush hook, hoe, axe sling blade.
• Will hand plant seedlings, using mattock or dibble.
• May scatter fertilizer pellets over planted area by hand.
• May spray herbicides or pesticides.
• Shears tops and limb tips from trees, as specified by supervisor to control growth, increase limb density, and improve shape.

Harvesting Christmas evergreen trees on a Christmas tree farm:

• Selects Christmas trees for cutting according to markings or size, species, and grade as directed by the grower or supervisor.
• Will cut trees using chain saw or axe as directed by grower or supervisor.
• Will drag trees that range in weight from 50 to 100 lbs. from cutting area to field loading area and lift onto mechanical tree bailer to be bailed.
• Trees weighing 100 lbs. will be moved in teams of 2 or more.
• Will load trees onto field trucks or trailers for transport to a central staging area where trees will be unloaded, sorted and grouped according to size, species and quality specifications as directed by the grower or supervisor.
• May drive trucks or tractors on an incidental basis, as is the norm in the industry, in and around the field or from the field to central loading areas.
• Workers will load Christmas trees into box trailers for shipment to market according to supervisor’s instructions.
• Workers must exercise care not to break or damage limbs of trees when working around and handling trees.
• Work is physically challenging and will be performed in steep mountainous terrain in varying weather that includes, but is not limited to cold, rain, snow, and sleet.

SANITATION REQUIREMENTS

For food and general personal safety purposes, all workers will be required and expected to always follow common sanitary practices. This is particularly critical when hand harvesting crops for human consumption. Employees are required to cleanse their hands by washing them thoroughly with soap and water after using the bathroom and before entering the fields for harvest activities. All workers must report all injuries and illnesses to their employer, as well as any communicable disease such as but not limited to diarrhea, or any other infectious disease or illness. Workers shall report immediately any cuts or abrasions that cause open bleeding.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Cherries, Apples, Asparagus, Corn:

• Workers will perform various duties associated with planting, cultivation (including pruning and thinning) and hand harvesting fruit and vegetable crops.
• Workers may be required to climb, bend, stoop, or crawl to harvest any of the crops listed.
• Workers will be instructed in the proper way to harvest and will be expected to conform to those instructions.
• Workers will be required to perform many of these duties atop a ladder.

Greenhouse:

• Workers will assist with working in the greenhouse.
• Workers will perform manual tasks related to the growing of greenhouse stock that will include some combination of the following; preparing fields by clearing cull stock, brush, and debris; planting seedlings by hand, digging, loading, unloading, or transplanting bare-root nursery stock, straightening, tying, pruning, and shearing tree and shrubs, cutting, pulling or removing and mowing of weeds and grass.