Starke Ayres is the foremost African specialist and global supplier of premium vegetable, flower and lawn seed varieties – both for commercial and home garden planting. The following position has become available for a General Worker, based in Oudtshoorn on our Research Farm. The job involves the essential tasks of preparing, managing, and maintaining the various stages of plant cultivation, from seed sowing and seedling management to transplanting, emasculation, crossing, harvesting, seed processing, greenhouse cleaning, trial harvesting, and other related activities, ensuring the successful growth and development of plants for seed production.

Responsibilities:

• Seed counting and packaging
• Soaking, washing and drying seedling trays
• Preparing seedling mix for seedling tray filling
• Tray filling with seedling mix
• Sowing according to the sowing list
• Moving seedling trays from germ room to seedling house after 72 hrs of sowing and putting in order
• Preparing seedling mix for planting pots
• Filling of planting pots with seedling mix
• Moving in filled pots and arranging them in the greenhouses
• Connecting drippers to the pots
• Loading crates onto pickup truck
• Offloading the crates at the greenhouses
• Placing labelled crates next to the trial plots accordingly
• Harvesting fruits for yield data
• Assisting the supervisor with weighing the fruits
• Assisting in counting the fruits

Requirements:

• Grade 12 National Senior Certificate (Essential)
• Experience in agriculture is an advantage.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit and use hands to finger, handle or feel, and techniques that require fine motor skills and repetitive motions.
• The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk.
• The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 5 kg.
• The employee is regularly required to talk or hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
• The individual will be required to work in an open-air environment directly exposed to weather conditions.