The classic image of a farm laborer is someone hunched over in the sun,
picking vegetables out of the ground in the burning sun. But times are changing
for farm laborers, as the industry is relying more and more on machines. People
still need to be hired to use those machines, though. It just means that the
types of qualifications and skills that are needed to become a farm laborer
are changing.
Whether they're doing it by hand or with machines, farm laborers plant
and harvest crops. They may do things like fertilize and plow fields; turn
over weeds by driving a tractor; plant trees; and prune bushes and trees.
Fruit farms employ people to pick their crop on a seasonal basis.
Farm laborers can also deal with livestock, and handle farm maintenance
and upkeep. In doing so, they may be cleaning barns, feeding the animals or
operating devices like milking machines that deal with animals in some way.
Farm maintenance and upkeep could involve anything from painting barns to
fixing sheds.
Another thing farm laborers may do is move produce and livestock from a
farm to another place to be prepared for sale or delivery.
Both women and men can be farm laborers; however, the industry mostly tends
to employ men. Farm work can be very physically demanding.
"Although there are women who can and do work as agricultural employees,
the majority of the work is done by men,"says John Youngberg, vice-president
of governmental affairs at the Montana Farm Bureau Federation.
Many full-time farm laborers are employed by bigger farms; smaller farms
tend to employ people on a temporary basis, often even day-to-day. The length
of the working days can be irregular, sometimes lasting as long as the sun
is up.
The work can also be very seasonal. Some farm laborers are day laborers,
who work part-time during harvest season on several different farms.
Other farm laborers are migrant workers. That means they travel to where
the work is. In the farm industry, that depends on what is in season in different
parts of North America.
Another option for a farm laborer is to be a farm equipment operator, who
run equipment that the company they work for rents out to farms.