Farmwoker

Work description

We operate a winter calving cow/calf operation where the cow herd is confined as early as November, requiring more intensive care for cattle. Calves are born in December through February. Employees will attend to cattle for the calving season. There are several reasons for this, but basically, this system is more conducive to mixed farming operations and pure-bred operations, where the cow/calf enterprise doesn’t interfere with the cropping enterprise and calves have extra months to put on weight prior to sale. While confined for this period, cattle will need to be fed and given water. During this period, we need extra labor to attend to cows and calves, assist with the calving process, and set up and clean calving shelters to protect cows and calves from the elements. Calves born in the winter will be feeding from milk produced by the cow; for that reason, winter feeding is not necessary, reducing the need for expensive supplemental feeding since field grazing is not available during the winter months. Once the calving season ends, we no longer need the extra labor. In the spring, cattle are sent to fields for grazing. Employees will be maintaining cattle herd health. During this period when cattle are confined, employees will need to feed the cattle and keep water wells working properly. They will build and clean corrals/shelters as needed, perform snow removal as required, and vaccinate, administer medication, and check cows and calves. They will assist with sorting, weighing, branding, and low-stress handling. They will maintain corrals, buildings, improvements, and livestock equipment used for proper cattle management and observe safe practices. Employees must have knowledge of maintaining and repairing of fences and cattle handling. In November: Feeding and monitoring cattle health, setting up and cleaning calving shelters; December through March: Feeding and monitoring cattle health, cleaning calving shelters, attending to cows and calves, assisting with the calving process, vaccinating, administering medication, and doing checks on cows and calves; April through May: Feeding and monitoring cattle health, vaccinating, administering medication, doing checks on cows and calves, and moving cow/calf pairs to grazing pastures; June through July: Monitoring cattle health, processing calves by branding, castrating, and vaccinating calves. Job duties will include driving farm trucks, tractors, and other equipment to distribute feed to animals, examining animals to detect illness, injury, or disease, and checking physical characteristics such as the rate of weight gain, feeding and watering livestock, monitoring food and water supplies, herding livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, trucks, or other enclosures, marking livestock to identify ownership and grade using brands, tags, paint, or tattoos, mixing feed, additives, and medicines in prescribed portions, patrolling grazing lands on horseback or using all-terrain vehicles, performing duties related to livestock reproduction such as breeding animals within appropriate timeframes, performing artificial inseminations, and helping with animal births, caring for animals, cleaning equipment or facilities, examining animals to detect illness, injury, or other problems, operating farming equipment, treating animal injuries or illnesses, and maintaining feeding equipment. (100% of the job is 45-2093) Employer may provide pay increases for performance, longevity and/or experience at employer's discretion. Employer may provide performance bonuses at the end of the contract at the employer’s discretion.