Job Listing

Farm Hand

We are currently looking for a motivated, experienced individual to work at our dairy farm!

JOB DESCRIPTION

  • Conduct 2-4 milking shifts per week

  • Make weekly deliveries in the delivery truck to various vendors of our milk

  • Assist the dairy plant employees in bottling and dollying product

  • Perform daily antibiotic testing on all raw milk samples received by the plant.

  • Manage feed inventory, including hay, straw, pasture, minerals, lactating feed, and calf feed, and order any required feed in a timely fashion.

  • Submit ice cream and milk samples weekly for third party testing to monitor cattle health and plant/parlor cleanliness.

  • Conduct the routine maintenance of the plant and milking facility including changing all rubber parts every other month, servicing gear boxes, vacuum pumps, condensors.

  • Conducting quarterly pregnancy checks on all lactating cows, turning cows dry in a timely manner and caring for transition cows.

  • Ensuring that all calves have had colostrum within 24 hours, and that they have been dehorned, vaccinated, tagged and tattooed within the first two weeks.

  • Conducting month end inventory on all plant and farm supplies.

  • Ordering all COGS for the dairy plant (jugs, caps, cleaning chemicals, ingredients etc.)

  • Receiving prompt payment from milk customers

  • Ensuring that routine maintenance is performed on delivery trucks (oil changes, tire changes and reefer maintenance)

  • Maintaining a good working relationship with our local veterinarian

  • Manage the seasonal breeding of the various herds by introducing and removing the bulls at the right time.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS

Applicants must possess the following:

  • An approach to dairying that is in line with Cruze Farm’s “Farming Philosophy”

  • A love and passion for cows, farming, milk, ice cream and people

  • A moderate to good Spanish language fluency

  • An ability to quickly recognize and troubleshoot the most commonly encountered cow and calf health issues on a farm. These include: metritis, DA’s, ketosis, milk fever, mastitis, pink-eye, foot rot, digital dermatitis, pneumonia, calf scours, infected navels, and subcutaneous infections resulting from wounds.

  • Basic foreknowledge of and facility with electric and barbed wire fencing.

  • Basic plumbing skills

  • Experience putting up hay

  • Experience milking cows

  • Good math skills and penmanship

  • Must be willing to work varied hours, nights and weekends (especially Sundays), and some holidays, as need dictates.

  • A valid driver’s license with a clean driving record

  • An ability to lift 100lbs



SAMPLE WORK WEEK

While no two weeks on a farm ever look the same, below is an example of a typical work week. 

  • Sunday: am milking, feed calves, set up the pm lactating herd paddock

  • Monday: 6am bottling, antibiotic testing, then deliver milk to ice cream shops, check on dry cows

  • Tuesday: deliver milk, run milk samples to lab, antibiotic test, place orders 

  • Wednesday: antibiotic test, run errands, check on dry cows, transition fresh cows into milking herd, vaccinate calves

  • Thursday: OFF

  • Friday: OFF

  • Saturday: Feed calves and bulls, set up next day’s paddocks, pm milking

COMPENSATION

Wage: $17/hr

Paid Time Off:  40 hours paid time off after the first year, 80 hours paid time off after the second year

Somatic Cell Count Bonus: $150/week for every week that the somatic cell count is below 400,000

Weaned Heifer Bonus: $150/head for every heifer calf raised to 6 months

**no overtime pay