At present (Oct 2012) we have employees and contractors for the spring planting season, we are not hiring. Of course we expect to keep expanding so the job descriptions are left on the website.
See below for description of full and part time equipment operator positions.
Please send resume for following positions to kjjacobs@telus.net
Farm Business Manager – Jacobs Farms Daysland (JFD)
Description:
JFD is looking to hire a farm business manager. Over the past 15 years we have expanded 7 times and by 2020 we hope to be 4 times the size we are today. To accomplish this JFD is transitioning from a family farm model to a corporation and therefore increase employees.
Salary will be 30,000 to 80,000/year depending on qualifications. Housing and a company vehicle can be provided. JFD has 3 rental houses. We are looking for a recent grad wilth little or no experience who "thinks outside the box".
We are currently looking to hire a university grad with a degree in agriculture or business. Grain farming is in the initial stages of a technical revolution, crops now average 50 bu/acre, we will apply high levels of management, inputs and technology to attempt to increase our yeilds to 250 bu/acre. Initial duties will include the following as well as some equipment operation during seeding and harvest.
- Grain marketing
- Currently produce approximately 200 000 bushels per year of canola, wheat and peas
- Field tracking
- Manage 5200 acres
- Maintain a proper crop and chemical rotation with attention paid to weed pressures and resistance
- Keep detailed field notes – including seeding and spraying detail
- Manage equipment purchases and maintenance
- Currently have approximately 2 million worth of equipment
- Cost / benefit analysis on current equipment as well as new purchases
- Schedule and document maintenance for all equipment
- Maintain use inspections
- Establish and maintain a current business plan
- Banking and bookkeeping
- Cost of production on a per acre basis
- Return per acre calculated and documented
- Check all financial transactions for accuracy and honesty
- Ensure all bills are paid and payments received on time
- Feasibility studies
New technologies such as "seeding between the rows", "in crop fertilizer application", "leveling and irrigation"
Potential to expand beyond physically farming – ie new ventures such as a bio-fuel plant, gentically modifying lab.
7.Personnel Management
- As JFD expands new employees will be hired
- Manage employee benefit plans, schedules and payroll
8.Trips for education and fun
Travel will allow employees to observe different farming practices and ideas.
There is more to life than work, a growing successful operation such as JFD will reward its employees.
Job description for equipment operator
Full or part time. We need 2 part time equipment operators from May 1 to June 15 and 3 part time equipment operators from Aug 15 to Oct 15 each year. The labour market is extremely tight in the province of Alberta, Canada so workers from other countries are welcome, JFD would have to get a work visa for foreign workers.
Wage; 10 to 50$/hr depending on qualifications. Housing and a company vehicle can be provided.
Training can be provided, workers can start on a riding lawn mower and work their way up to running a combine. You must be able to work alone and safely.
Duties include operating and maintaining the latest large grain farming equipment such as tractors, air drills, hi clearance sprayers, swathers and combines, some of these machines are worth .5 million dollars, they have deluxe cabs, auto steer, yield mapping and variable rate seeding technology. Also around the farm jobs such as building and repairing grain bins and other buildings.
Ideal Qualifications: Minimum grade 12 education, farm experience is a asset but not mandatory, mechanically inclined, welding and fabricating ability, computer knowledge, physically fit, with a “can get it done attidude”. You must be of above average intelligence as you will be expected to learn quickly (take this very seriously, we have no tolerance for dummies). You must have the ability to work alone in a safe manner. We have CB's and cell phones for communication.
Must have a clean class 1 Alberta drivers liscence.
Minimum grade 12 because these machines are very complicated electro-mechanical devices, most are computer controlled and have very thick manuals.
Mechanically inclined, a understanding of machines is very rare, however in order to set these complicated machines to seed, spray or combine mechanical aptitude is required. All machines require maintance and fixing, sometimes the newest machine requires the most wrenching in order to get it dialled in.
Welding and fabricating, the factories make machines for a broad market, we modify them for our very demanding conditions.
Computer knowledge, most equipment is now steered by GPS, combines produce yield maps, the data is fed into a variable rate seeder, in other words computers control everything and data must be manipulated on a computer. Parts manuals are on computers at the manufactures and we have field computers with “air cards” to access the parts lists.
Physically fit, although there is no physically hard labour (modern farms do not have “labourers”), getting in and out of machines to load and mix chemicals, seed, grain etc for up to 14 hrs/day requires a high level of physical fitness.
“can get it done attitude”, because our planting and harvesting window is so short, the air seeder and combines are treated like Nascars, if they break a mobile shop (5th wheel trailer with welder, air tools, cutting tourch etc) is brought to the field and the machine is fixed instantly. If parts are needed they are put on the plane, shipped overnite and picked up anywhere in Alberta. In short nothing stops the seeder or combines.
Non smokers only, I do not want my deluxe cabs smelling like smoke.
Jacobs Farms Daysland will be expanding, if you believe agriculture is the future, you like being home every nite and you have minimum qualifications please send resume to e-mail address. I (Keith Jacobs) believe agriculture is the future because I believe the price of oil will hit $200/bbl in the next decade. I have 35+ years of oilfield experience and in the winter I work as a oilfield consultant. The high cost of petroleum oil is setting a floor price for Canola due to bio-deisel, and the floor price is quite profitable.
Daysland is a town of about 800 residents, it has school, hospital, churches and everything needed for life. Camrose is a beautiful small city located 45 km from Daysland, it is primarily agriculture based with a bit of oilfeild work. There are many jobs available in the province of Alberta Canada, both in Agriculture and Oil & Gas.
