New York Seasonal Jobs

Job Information

Lakeside Orchards Inc Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop in Burt, New York

40 Fulltime H-2A Seasonal jobs available 02/03/2025 - 11/08/2025.

Due to food safety regulations, workers must understand basic instructions in English.

During the anticipated period of employment, the primary activity on this farm will be the hand harvest of apples. Workers may drive and operate farm machinery to plant, cultivate, spray and harvest apples. Removes excess growth from trees to improve fruit quality using pruning saws and clippers. Workers drive tractors to transport materials, supplies, or product. Also, thin blossoms or immature fruit to obtain better quality fruit. Other harvesting fruit or other job duties, if required.

Workers must be physically able to pick fruit, most of which is done from ladders with lower branches being picked from the ground. Workers place ladder firmly against or within tree in a secure position so as not to break limbs or knock off fruit and to prevent slipping or falling. All fruit to be handled with care to avoid causing bruising. Picked fruit is placed in a metal-framed, canvas-covered picking bucket with canvas straps that slip over the head and rest on the shoulders. The bucket when filled weighs up to 45-lbs. and is emptied into bulk boxes known as tote boxes. Each tote box has a capacity of twenty (20) bushels. Workers are required to handle ladders up to 24-feet long and weighing about 2-lbs. per foot. In apple harvest work, workers may be instructed to selectively pick mature fruit according to size, color, and grade standards factors. Workers will be directed to strip all fruit from tree at one picking or to spot pick (selective picking) according to size and color depending on crop conditions and state of maturity. Fruit picked as drops is never mixed with tree fruit. Productivity must be at least 4.8 bins per day for fresh market apples and 6.75 bins per day for processing apples. Each workers picked fruit will be inspected according to instructions given each day by the orchard foreman.

Workers also perform any combination of tasks involved in trimming, planting, cultivating and harvesting of fruits such as tilling soil, planting stock, pruning trees and bushes, removing suckers and runners from trees, vines and plants. Other duties include laying out irrigation pipe and installing sprinklers, assisting in repairing fences, unloading trucks, clearing fields, burning brush and hand thinning fruit. Will use appropriate tools such as shovels, hoes, tampers and/or pruning shears. Peaches are hand-picked in half-bushel baskets. Also, the skimming of cherries from tanks as cherries are shaken from tree. Additional duties during February and March include tree trimming for early Spring growth; expect inclement working conditions, cold temperatures (at times below 32 degrees Fahrenheit) and snow-covered ground.

Employer will furnish to workers, without cost, all tools and equipment required in the performance of the duties assigned. Workers should report for work with their own suitable work clothing. Field temperatures may range from 30 degrees to 85 degrees with possible wet morning conditions. Extensive walking and frequent stooping is expected.

Requirements:

  • Applicants will be required to have three months experience in all duties outlined in this job order.
  • Employer will train.
  • Hand harvest fruit with minimal to no bruising. Identify fruit grade (color, size).
  • Exposure to extreme temperatures
  • Lifting requirement of 45 lbs.
  • Extensive walking and extensive pushing, pulling.
  • Climb and lift ladder up to 8 ft high weighing 2-lbs per foot.

The full terms and conditions of the job (form ETA790a) should be reviewed and provided to qualified applicants from this website: seasonaljobs.dol.gov. For qualified applicants requiring a Spanish translation of this job order, please email DOCE@labor.ny.gov or call 1-877-466-9757. Please include the applicant name and job order number in your request.

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