Soon I'll be working long term on a farm, agriculture not livestock, my experience is mostly seasonal fruit picking so does PrepHole have any tips?
Anyone here doing the same?
Soon I'll be working long term on a farm, agriculture not livestock, my experience is mostly seasonal fruit picking so does?
>does PrepHole have any tips?
don't have sex with the goats, you'll get STDs from the other guys that frick the goats
Remember to stretch. Very important
Gotcha, anything else?
Hey anon I do both, like agriculture for livestock if that makes sense. I'm growing rye/oats/canola for fleabags to graze on. Half of my job is tractor-based and the other half is trudging around fields and scowling at the dirt and poking at seedlings. What does your employer provide you with? You need at least:
>Steel toed boots
>Gaitors that go over your boots
>Broad brimmed hat
>Fly net that goes over the hat
>Leather "Riggers" gloves
>Multi-tool with pliers and a serrated blade
>Sunglasses that aren't shit
>Bulk SPF50+ sunscreen
and most importantly
>Wireless earbuds or headphones
because you will spend hours alone in the sun and rain and snow and can only talk to yourself for so long. I download podcasts overnight and face the next day with new knowledge
Also what prompted the move to work long term? Is it family or mental health related? Within 6 months you'll complete the PrepHole bingo thread whenever it pops up and become jaded with all the larpers calling you a larper in no time. God speed anon
You get to keep an indoor sheep for winter?
They provide rubber boots, rain gear, gloves and all the necessary PPEs.
>Also what prompted the move to work long term? Is it family or mental health related?
It just makes sense $$ wise since I'll be making 2.5x what I make at home and considering they provide housing too it's a no brainer for me.
>God speed anon
Thanks friend.
Thanks for the tips anon.
>What job will you be doing on the farm?
It's a small, family owned organic farm so I'll spending a shitton of time removing weeds manually, picking fruits and vegetables, helping with planting, setting up irrigation tubes etc.
I would prefer to work with livestock, fixing fences, cleaning shit or whatever but I'll take it. I fricked up at school and I can't work inside all day on a warehouse, fast food or factory listening to some power tripping baboon yelling at me, I much rather being outside enjoying the sun and listening to birds while I dig some hole or carry a wheelbarrow full of produce.
Removing weeds is really soul and back crushing though.
Yeah, farms have a crazy shortage of laborers.
*I much rather prefer being
>farms have a crazy shortage of laborers
Shit man maybe I can get a job at one. Even if I hate it at least I'll have a job.
>Even if I hate it
Some tasks really, really make you hate the job.
If it's sunny and warm you do have plenty of enjoyable moments too.
>Some tasks really, really make you hate the job.
Not him but the only things I'd dislike would be killing animals or that weird shit like jerking horses off. I don't know if it's just hearsay. Shoveling manure is not that bad and the farm I've been on was fricking garbage.
>killing animals
It's hard at first, and if it ever gets too easy, you're probably a serial killer in the making. The thing with animals is that once you've had to chase the frickers down the road at 2 AM because they learned how to T-1000 through the fence, you lose all feelings about killing them. Most farmers just sell the animals since it's too much hassle to own that much of the process.
Anon, if someone tells you to jerk off a horse then they're probably rusing you.
At this point, man, if someone offered me the job of honey dipper I'd probably take it, and I presume a lot of that job is hating it.
there are good paying jobs literally everywhere right now
only get into farming if its something you actually want to do
otherwise you can get $35/hr watching netflix all night at a hotel night desk
True.
The appeal of farming is working outside and being left on your own without having to deal with costumers or annoying morons.
Sounds like a dream. I just started working and only now realized how much I fricking hate people.
t.teacher
I fantasize about being a farmer sometimes, but the money in software engineering is too good. I stick to larping on my land and growing enough meat and veggies to take care of my family. I know a few small farmers, and they love it, but the system is stacked against them.
Just do like the rest of the teachers do: Turn all the kids trans, and wait for 41% of the problem to solve itself.
>Just do like the rest of the teachers do: Turn all the kids trans, and wait for 41% of the problem to solve itself.
Yeah, doesn't really happen here, not like in the US anyway. We're forced to be """inclusive""" in our speech, but we're all cringing together during staff meetings and such.
>you will spend hours alone in the sun and rain and snow
not OP but oh my god this doesn't sound bad at all. I actually discovered I like being in the elements
does anyone have experience with WWOOF? I have zero experience with PrepHole work but I think it's my calling. I just can't stand urban life. Do I need a degree to actually work reliably? Being outdoors and making barely enough money to sustain myself is pretty much what I want from life, but in my country 100% of the people hired to work outdoors are illegal blacks who get paid like 100€/mo. It's not a life.
>does anyone have experience with WWOOF?
That's good if you want to do it for the social part or if some specific farm has a cool project. If you want to make a living working on a farm there's plenty of job offers in western Europe, many provide you with a place to crash or to park you van if you're mobile.
>but in my country 100% of the people hired to work outdoors are illegal blacks who get paid like 100€/mo
France is your friend then. Or Switzerland if you're feeling lucky and cute.
Shoveling manure all day would be a pretty nice job tbh. What crushes your soul and body is being on your knee or bent over removing weeds by hand. It makes you hate not only the job but life itself.
>Removing weeds is really soul and back crushing though.
Got a grubber my dude? Or you mean pulling little weeds out of a vege setup? Can still get small ones for that too. I've done many acres with a grubber up on big hills and yeah it's shit especially in the heat. Frick ragwort, shitty smelly poisonous fricking things but at least their roots don't run very deep and they grow up tall enough that you don't need to get down on your knee to rip them out. At least you get to look back at where you have been and see them all gone.
>Got a grubber my dude?
Yeah but it's still shitty, last time I was removing weeds from spinach and you couldn't even see what was what since the spinach were still small and there were weeds all over it. Also you have those nasty frickers with microscopic needle like stings that frick you up but the worse part of it all is being bent over or kneeling.
Anon there are plenty agricultural jobs to be had easily but you actually need to go take a look for offerings? Where are you at?
I'm packing my shit and moving alone to a different country to do it and I'm a fricking moron so if I can do that you can too.
Nice tips mate. And yes I do enjoy it, I don't mind being under heavy rain picking fruit, my only problem is with weeds and kneeling.
Pace wise sometimes is fricked because you've people that had been doing for ages and they just fly through the job so you feel compeled to try to keep up so you don't look bad.
Oh so you have to move long distance to do that.
Sucks.
I own property and don't have a family to care for it, so moving's kind of a no go.
What country are you in?
They have those tools and also fabric but only in the greenhouses.
America.
Bro c'mon you're in the US?! I find it hard to believe there aren't lots of PrepHole job offers, specially agriculture related in your own country.
When I said moving I was talking within EU, going from poor, peripheral countries to Germany, Switzerland or France, in the States you can stay at home.
Yeah but moving to another country for you guys is like going from Philadelphia to Canton, Ohio.
When you move to another state in the US, you could be going further than Europe is wide.
>Philadelphia to Canton, Ohio.
Maybe but it's still a much harder experience since you have to deal with a different language, traditions, lots of bureaucracy, and even if you're from another EU country you're still a foreigner.
You can move from Nebraska to Oregon and you're still an american.
On a side note, just saw pretty much PrepHole's dream job being advertised.
>working as a shepherd to on the Pyrenees guarding the flock and looking for bears
If only I had 3 seasons worth of experience.
>working as a shepherd
Theres a lot of such jobs in new zealand hard to just turn up though, I suppose it's hard to get a visa, as well as that people will expect you to have 3 or 4 trained working dogs. Some of these guys won't even advertise just find someone. But then they will give you a house and a decent wage. Not guarding and looking for bears but more shifting the sheep and dealing with them..
There is a lot of farm work in general in nz there are seasonal crews of fruit pickers that come from the islands because no one wants to do it. Normally paid for how much they can pick so if you want to work hard it can be quite good. But you need to move around a lot doing that. Can get maybe 70k a year to settle down and pull cow breasts at 4am every morning.
Straya and Kiwi seem to be good for those kinds of jobs and the payment is better than in EU but visas and travel expenses are fricked up.
It's quite a lonely and harsh life on the mountains but for me working as a shepherd would literally be my dream job.
Yeah Australia and NZ are really good with farm wages compared to the USA because the minimum wage is liveable and farm work pays better than working in retail or some other entry level job. I started working on a dairy farm 5 years ago with no experience at a base rate of $25ph getting maybe ~20 hours a week work, and I'm up to $38ph after five years working between 50-60 hours a week and have more tickets and licences than I can fit in a wallet. After heavy taxes that's still ~$1800 a week in my bank account where I spend $160 a week rent on a cottage on two acres of land
https://www.hardyakka.com/au/p/legends_xtreme_cotton_cargo_pant/Y02210.html
You're probably not an Ausgay but they do international shipping and our dollars are only half of yours if you're american or a third if you're from the EU
>Another thing I need to figure out is what to do with my free time, I will bring a few books with me but after work finishes I'm left alone with nothing else to do
Reading is already good. If you're lucky enough to have rivers and lakes nearby kayaking and canoeing are great, so is fishing and hunting if you're into that stuff. Spending all the money you save on another old car or motorbike to fix up is fun. Because I have a really big backyard I got into archery a couple of years ago and built a proper range and made other archery friends. Also laying in a hammock while drinking a beer and reading a book on Saturday mornings is underrated. Buy a telescope and stare at the stars. Buy a second-hand mirrorless camera and an adapter for the telescopes' eyepiece and automate that shit with Aliexpress parts and SpaceEngine. Working on an animal farm gives you free access to dung and scrap metal so build an enormous vegetable patch and grow the shit out of shit. Long story short: You Do You and Push it To The Limit
This this this
Quality post and damn nice gig you got there mate.
Yeah reading will be a lifesaver, some of your recommendations are nice but will not work for me because I'll be working abroad and living in the farm's facilites.
>animal farm
Ehh I wish, it will be orchard and vegetable work all day, every day that's why I asked for tips on pants with knee pad inserts lol. Btw those you posted look very nice and the type of stuff I'm looking for.
No mexicans there and I don't do drugs at all.
Thanks for calling it a quality post. If you can't do the other fun things at least get a hammock and a cheap android tablet that you ran read books on. Project Gutenberg has big packs of old classics in text format that you can read for years. If you're tech savy you can get onto Undernet IRC for newly pirated epub files. Living with the boss doesn't stop you from staring at the stars and using apps like Stellarium to figure out where Jupiter and Mars are at night. Also look at the fire codes and burn shit if you can. If they don't have a decent fire pit, build your own and line it with rocks and scrap metal. Buy some cheap shitty cast iron pans on aliexpress and cook eggs or sausages or fish on it while drinking a beer or wine while sitting in some shithouse $20 camping chair
Thanks again m8.
come to Florida. I have a nursery and can use the help
north florida?
sorry meant to reply to
Farm work in a place as hot as Florida must be torturous.
There’s Stirrup Hoes which a small farm should have to help weeding, but it’s still a pain in the ass, just not bent over.
Do you know anything about their practices? If they use landscaping fabric you might not have to do as much weeding
>does anyone have experience with WWOOF?
Never done it but my experience seeing it across the fence. If they want you to work, they should pay you. Some of these jokers are the cheapest multi millionaires you will ever meet. They have a real hard time hiring proper staff. Be wary
I used to work on a farm during the summers, having a long sleeve shirt for work helps a lot because your arms will be rubbing against a lot of vines and plants so it could be very itchy or even cause allergic reaction. Also making sure you have your water nearby and cool. One of those party jugs with a spigot is great, even something like Gatorade and ice will be very refreshing.
Wear a hat because exposing your skin to the sun for hours everyday will make you burn, especially if you have more sensitive skin to the sun.
Sunscreen because it helps and is worth it.
Also you can dig a hole and leave some beer in there to keep it cool and its nice to crack one every now and then
What job will you be doing on the farm? Depending on what your doing the job will either be good or be shit. My job wasn't that bad but I hated the fricking morons I had to work with and how unorganized everything was. I enjoy working on things as a mechanic but I didn't find any sort of fulfillment in the job, the damn mexicans would just break the equipment the next day even worse than it was the day before.
I am making a career change to EMS soon.
t. Ag Mechanic
They still hire people to work long term on farms?
Yeah. In my case (
) there's 5th or 6th generation farmers around whos kids moved to the city to become doctors and lawyers and have no interest in continuing the family business, there's no local people to pick up the slack, and there's people like me that failed terribly at corporate city life who flee to the country and fall into roles that they didn't expect. If you're looking for advice to pull up sticks and move to the country: Just fricking go and make an effort and people will love you, animals will love you, plants will love you. Fist a pregnant cow that's struggling to give birth and pull a calf out of it and wash it in your bathtub
sounds good anon, maybe I'll start looking into something like this in the UK
Get yourself muck boots, rain jacket and pants, skip the steel toe since that’ll just make weeding terrible when it cuts into your toes. A Hori hori gardening knife is incredibly useful on a small farm like that, and a smaller pocket knife for when you’re trellising. Learn how to squat instead of grinding your knees on the ground. It’s the best job in the world, I hope you can enjoy it even when it’s raining and shitty out
Proper lifting techniques. Don't bend too much, and work at a median pace to avoid stress injuries.If anything seems too unsafe get help with it, don't tackle solo. A safe worker is a productive worker. We all should clock PrepHole in the same condition as when we clocked in.
You guys already recommended tools but what is the best SAK for farm work?
>agriculture not livestock
Can you tell us about the difference there anon
Agriculture is mostly related to vegetables, fruits and nuts while livestock involves animals.
Kek drug use within farm workers is pretty high, they use everything from weed, speed, ketamine, booze...
I don't do anything besides a couple beers during the weekend and it was fricking annoying sharing housing with junkies.
When I did fruit picking 2 years ago the other workers were just passing around 6 inch joints it was weird as frick people were drunk everywhere and one of the other pickers flipped a ute while drunk and the thing flipped 6 times and was completely demolished. He walked away.
And we were working on a farm that had won some of the most prestigious awards in their field worldwide I couldn't believe it, the owner of the property used to ride around on horse back with a shotgun shooting at birds all day
>the owner of the property used to ride around on horse back with a shotgun shooting at birds all day
Living the dream
get a good hat
Farmerbros do you have any recommendations for pants with knee pad insert?
Another thing I need to figure out is what to do with my free time, I will bring a few books with me but after work finishes I'm left alone with nothing else to do.
as k the owner to learn to operate equipment. sprayers, bailers, combines, manlifts, loaders anything you can. the bigger the better.
build trust with the owner by not damaging equipment. some farm equipment is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
get good at backing up a trailer. get your airbreaks if you can
mechanical aptitude is huge. theres an incredible amount of maintenance in agriculture. most repairs are reccuring, so its easy to learn enough to very useful
knowing how to use shop tools well and fabricate is very important
if you learn the industry aspect of ag, you can make good money. and you can do it longer, because operatinf and driving is possible even after retirement age
if you dont, youll make shit money, and end up doing all the shoveling
Solid advice.
If you can't work as fast as the Mexicans you won't last long. I was fired from one orchard job for being too slow, the next year I started working on a large olive orchard and impressed the boss so much he moved me up to a managerial position. Learn how to speak Spanish, don't do too much meth, don't break machinery. Ag jobs are a form of slavery, the sooner you accept it the better.
Gonna go down this route myself. I hope I won't get fricked in the ass (metaphorically or otherwise) but I genuinely cannot stand the Internet anymore. I haven't been on PrepHole in forever and I hate this site now but I wanna thank this board for having had the most positive influence on me by far
god bless you guys
Good luck man, I hope you find something that fits you.
I want to do the same.
I need to understand how to find an organic farm like OP did.
Look on facebook farming groups.