Organic Farm Assistant Farmer

Job Purpose:

To assist the Farm Manager in the care and management of the fields and infrastructure along with assisting in all aspects of crop production.

Responsibilities:

To assist in crop production activities including planting, weeding, harvesting and seed cleaning as needed (70%)

To be the primary tractor operator for tasks like field preparation, planting, mowing, etc. (10%)

To help maintain, fix and build farm equipment and infrastructure (10%)

To help manage aspects of the farm depending on personal skill set and interest (greenhouse, IPM, irrigation, harvest, etc) (10%)

To help guide farm crews in select tasks and maintain quality standards

Maintain clean and efficient facilities and work zones

To assist with farm record keeping.

Preferred professional experience:

3+ years of prior farm experience

Experience operating and maintaining tractors and farm equipment

Skills and qualities:

The ideal candidate will have a strong mechanical knowledge and is comfortable with equipment operation, maintenance, and repair while ensuring safety and efficiency in all operations

Comfortable using various hand and power tools and has general handy-person skills

Interested in learning and developing organic farm management practices including soil management

Able to stay organized and manage multiple farm responsibilities

Be a clear and frequent communicator

Takes initiative by proactively identifying and bringing to attention all potential problems along with recommendations and remedies for solutions

Creative, resourceful problem-solving team-builder.

Follows through on a task from start to finish with little supervision

Willingness to learn and listen, be flexible, quick to adapt to changing circumstances

Detail-oriented, observant

A minimum of basic conversational Spanish is preferred/recommended

This is a fast-paced job that requires tracking many farm elements including 100+ crops. Our operation is best described as “an established startup”, which has a strong foundation and room to grow, and we are looking for employees who want to stay long-term and help lead that growth.

Details:

Full-time, year-round. $37-45K/year salary (DOE) with PTO

Located in Dayton, OR. On site housing is available for rent

To apply, submit a resume and cover letter via email

Questions? Contact us via email

About Our Company:

Chickadee Farm/Summertime Seed Co. owners and farm managers Sebastian Aguilar and Kelly Gelino started their first organic farm in 1998 and, after many years of growing fresh produce, transitioned to seed production of vegetables and flowers starting in 2010. We now grow over 100+ organic seed crops per year on 16 acres for both wholesale and direct sales.

Our goals are to take care of the farm staff, take care of the farm’s ecology and develop an efficient and profitable farm enterprise that makes our care of people and the land sustainable. Our farm production style is to prep fields, plant and weed using tractors as much as possible with hand work inevitable for special crops and situations. Harvests are mostly done by hand. We strive to develop precise systems so that we can be effective and timely in our tasks and create a clean, abundant and satisfying farm.

Our farm practices intensive crop production in both the open field and in high tunnels and our farm staff size fluctuates seasonally from 4-8 people. Ideal candidates are people who are interested in becoming long-term employees and who grow their roles and responsibilities over time through an interest in organic crop and seed production and developing precise and efficient production systems on a small to mid-size scale.

We are looking for two Assistant Managers, one to focus on infrastructure and field-scale tasks and one to focus on crop-scale tasks, though at our small scale, everyone does a little bit of everything. This position, the Assistant Field Manager, will operate and maintain tractors and farm equipment, prepare fields for planting, build and maintain other infrastructure and farmscaping as needed, and assist in crop production. The Assistant Crop Manager will manage the needs of our 100+ varieties from planting through harvest and ensure our crops are well cared for and harvested on time. Both positions report to the Farm Manager and will work together to ensure smooth farm operations. Both positions are primarily hands-on labor positions accomplishing daily tasks (90%) with the balance of time for planning, managing and logging tasks.