Category: Agri Labour

R U OK? Thursday 10 September is our national day of action when we remind our mates, neighbours, colleagues and other fellow Australians that it can be any day to ask the question, ‘Are you OK?’

This year’s theme is ‘There’s More to Say After R U OK?’

2020 will be remembered as one of the most challenging years of many people’s lives. From drought and fire, to floods, COVID-19 and the major impact of these events on individuals, families, businesses and communities, there’s plenty more to say after R U OK?

You don’t have to be an expert to keep the conversation going when someone says they’re not OK. The R U OK team have a great kit that helps us know what to say to make someone feel supported and navigate the steps to access help before they’re in further crisis.

If you feel like something’s not quite the same with someone you know – there’s something going on in their life or you notice a change in what they’re saying or doing – trust your instinct and take the time to ask them ‘Are you OK?’ If someone says they’re not OK, make time to listen, encourage action and check in. That conversation could change, or even save, their life.

Learn more about how to ask if someone is OK here

For more information, visit R U OK?

Spring has arrived in Australia and for those in the agriculture industry, this means there are harvesting jobs and plenty of work available across the country.

This is an incredibly busy time in agriculture and at Agri Labour Australia, where we are working hard to make sure our candidates are being connected to great jobs for upcoming harvest and farm projects. Spring in Australia varies in every state – the vastness of our country means that a season in one part of the country can be very different climate in another.

Tasmania remains cold until almost the end of the year, with North Queensland and the Northern Territory staying hot all year round. These significant differences mean crops and harvest times vary enormously and provide lots of job opportunities for seasonal workers, grey nomads and backpackers all over the country!  Gaining experience in one area, can often lead to you following the season for that crop from state to state.

Even with COVID-19 restrictions in place at present, there are many fantastic roles in whichever state of Australia you may be in. Our regional and rural towns are always welcoming and offer a great lifestyle experience while you earn dollars to keep on travelling. Many of our workers love the places they visit so much, they end up staying permanently!

To see what’s happening, here’s a snapshot of just some of the crop harvest and activities happening around Australia during Spring:

Spring Harvests

• Queensland – grain, vegetables, melons, tomatoes, strawberries and bananas
• NSW/ACT – grain, berries, vegetables, avocados and citrus
• Victoria – grain, vegetables, asparagus, tomatoes and stonefruit
• South Australia – grapes, citrus and stonefruit
• Northern Territory – mangoes and melons
• Western Australia – avocados, vegetables, grapes, mangoes, citrus and stonefruit
• Tasmania – vegetables, hops and planting

Our website has all our latest job opportunities where you can also register your interest for upcoming projects like the 2020 Grain Harvest. This is super exciting work and offers some of the very best seasonal jobs the Australian agriculture industry has to offer. It’s always high on the list of options for many backpackers and international travellers.

Agri Labour Australia work with the best people in the industry and are known for looking after our candidates, great working conditions, industry leading pay rates and so much more. Check out our Spring jobs here!

Dene Nichols has been a long serving member of the Tasmanian Agri Labour Australia (ALA) Team. A tremendously reliable and dependable worker, Dene is known for his great attitude and exceptional work ethic.

It didn’t take long for our client Huon Aquaculture to also recognise what an asset Dene is – so much that they have given him a full time job at their facilities based in Paramatta Creek, Tasmania.

While we are sad to see Dene go, we are thrilled that his excellent work and professional values have delivered this great result. Before he left, we asked Dene a few questions about his time with ALA.

How long have you worked with Agri Labour Australia?

Going on nearly 4 years now. I worked for over two years at the Spretyon mushroom farm and when it shut down, the team from ALA found me work with Huon Aquaculture.

How did you start with us?

My son-in-law knew someone who worked at the mushroom farm and they connected me with Agri Labour Australia.

What is your role at Huon Aquaculture?

I am a Process Worker. I’ve worked in a few different production areas but currently I am working in the cold smoke area.

What are the main tasks you perform?

In the cold smoke room I clean the floor, grade fish, trim up smoked portions and assist with the packaging of some products.

What’s the best part about your job?

For sure, it’s the fun we have! I get on well with everyone and the team all have a good laugh, which is great for morale and makes the days enjoyable.

What skills have you learned since joining the Agri Labour Australia team?

Absolutely heaps – working on two different job sites really taught me lots of different things. Mushrooms and salmon are very different but both jobs require a good work ethic.

What is the most challenging part of your work?

Getting up early! I usually get to work at about 3-4am.

What are your career goals?

I have always wanted to move into a full time or permanent role. Now my job at Huon has allowed me to achieve this goal and I will work directly for Huon Aquaculture on a full time basis.

How has ALA helped you?

Without ALA I wouldn’t have got the job at Huon so I am very grateful for the assistance that ALA has provided me in getting work and now, this full time role.

What would you tell other people who are considering working for Agri Labour Australia?

To join up! Its that simple. I would definately recommend Agri Labour Australia to my mates and family.

Spring and Summer are by far the busiest times in Australian agriculture. Big harvests, like grain, mango and other major crops, mean big hours and the opportunity to earn some big dollars. However, fatigue can bring these work plans to an abrupt end if not managed properly.

While emergency services and medical workers are extremely high risk, seasonal and shift workers in the agriculture space are also some of those at highest risk of fatigue. Working at heights, in confined spaces, operating machinery and driving are jobs heavily affected by fatigue and very common roles in agriculture.

Fatigue presents itself in many ways, with the most common signs being:

• Tiredness – even after sleep
• Reduced hand-eye coordination or slow reflexes
• Poor concentration
• Not able to follow instructions
• Blurred vision or impaired visual perception
• A need for extended sleep during days off work

Keeping our workers safe is the number one priority at Agri Labour Australia, with fatigue being one of our key areas of focus. We provide specific training and instruction about fatigue when you start with us and have strict policies to ensure our candidates have the opportunity to rest and overcome the effects of tiredness after work.

The consequences of fatigue can be fatal, therefore it is critical for everyone to take a responsible approach to managing their fatigue and keeping a close eye on team mates who may be showing signs.

Here are some important ways you can help everyone stay safe at work:

• Understand your sleep, rest and recovery needs and get adequate rest and sleep away from work
• Seek medical advice and help if you have or are concerned about a health condition that affects your sleep and/or causes fatigue
• Assess your own fitness for work before starting
• Monitor your level of alertness and concentration while you’re at work
• Look out for signs of fatigue in the people you work with
• Make sure you to take your scheduled breaks or shift naps (night shift), drink water, do some stretching or physical exercise, adjust your work environment (for example lighting and/or temperature)
• Talk to your supervisor if you think you’re at risk of fatigue
• Assess your fatigue levels after work and make sensible commuting and accommodation decisions

The ALA team is always here to help, so make sure you speak with your supervisor if you have any concerns.

The 2020 Australian Grain Harvest is one of the biggest events on the country’s agriculture calendar with this year predicted to be a bumper crop!

Grain Harvest is exciting work – set against spectacular Australian outback scenery, where you can enjoy being part of a hard working team and earning a great wage, all while making lifelong memories.

Each year, Grain Harvest jobs are sought after by backpackers, international travellers, grey nomads, students and local residents who are all looking to be a part of this great seasonal work. We advertise a range of Grain Harvest roles that offer fantastic short term job opportunities for any skill set, age group or gender across various locations in Australia.

At Agri Labour Australia, we are extremely proud of the great people and teams we have employed to work in the annual Grain Harvest – many of whom return each year and follow the harvest from start to finish.

When and where is the Australian Grain Harvest?

Weather dependent, Grain Harvest usually begins in September and runs through to January. Grain season starts in Queensland before heading south to New South Wales and Victoria.

Some grain sites will have extended harvests, while others may only go for a few weeks.

2020 Grain Harvest jobs

From grain sampling to driving a front loader and general site duties, Grain Harvest roles are diverse and interesting. You will experience working with a variety of crops including wheat, sorghum, canola, barley and chickpeas. Your role may include the following tasks:

• Grain testing – application of a special vacuum to grade the grain and check for moisture, protein, pollutants
• Weighbridge grain receivals and data entry
• Operating front end loaders, grain hoppers, tractors and augers
• Monitoring grain flow
• Storage and protection of grain including tarp folding, welding and bunker covering
• Sweeping, shovelling, dust blowing and other site cleaning
• Working in confined spaces

What skills do I need to work in the 2020 Grain Harvest?

Grain Harvest workers need to be committed to the season and have a flexible attitude due to weather often impacting on the ability to process grain. Grain Harvest is intensive and hard work so we need people who have energy and can sustain the pace!

Grain sites are dusty, therefore it’s important that grain workers are free from allergies to dust or asthma.

We want to hear from you if you can address the following criteria:

• Able to pass drug and alcohol tests
• Physically fit and able to work long hours with flexible shifts
• Must have your own transport
• High level of English communication skills
• Thrive under pressure
• Strong work ethic
• A great team player
• Previous experience in wheat and grain harvests is highly regarded (not essential)
• Heavy Rigid Truck or higher, and Front-End Loader licences are highly favourable
• Confined Spaces Certificate is a huge plus!

Choose Agri Labour Australia!

At Agri Labour Australia, we aim to make the Grain Harvest employment process easy for both job seeker and employer. We genuinely care about our candidates, their safety and making sure you get the right pay rates and penalties.

We will train you to ensure that you arrive onsite prepared, confident and ready to start your job as a grain harvester! If you have a question or concern, our consultants are always on hand to deliver advice and support when you need it.

Here’s what you can expect when you join Agri Labour Australia for the 2020 Grain Harvest:

• A generous salary starting at $26 per hour, with applicable overtime and penalty rates. Higher hourly rates are offered to returning and highly skilled workers.
• Work with your friends! If you are travelling together and each pass our interview and drug and alcohol tests, we will do our best to ensure you can work and travel together on the Grain Harvest.
• We’ll connect you with more Grain Harvest work – providing you with opportunities to travel with the harvest, moving from central Queensland to Southern Victoria.
• We employ local, travelling and international applicants.
• Watch videos of your work environment, so you can get an insight into your day-to-day tasks.
• We support you. You can talk to your recruiter regarding any issues or questions you may have throughout your placement.

Safety

Agri Labour Australia is committed to ensuring the safety of all our staff. COVID-19 is now also included in our training, induction and pre-employment processes.

Drug and alcohol testing will also be carried out prior to you being contracted by Agri Labour Australia and randomly throughout the Grain Harvest season.

Interested? Head over to our Grain Harvest Registration Page. We look forward to your application!

This month we are excited to be chatting with a couple of our favourite Argentinian’s – Renzo Campanella and Ezequiel Vergara. These two hard working young men are both qualified agronomists who have been a fantastic addition to the Agri Labour Australia (ALA) workforce since 2019.

Initially commencing with ALA on last year’s Grain Harvest in Queensland before heading down to Renmark in South Australia for the big citrus season, we are pleased to have them returning for the 2020 Grain Harvest.

Known for their exceptional work ethic, great attitude and always popular wherever they go, we chatted to Renzo and Ezy to find out a bit more about them and what they think about agriculture work in Australia.

How long have you been with Agri Labour Australia?
We started late last year on the Grain Harvest in Emerald where we worked for four months, before joining the citrus season in South Australia.

How did you get started with us?
We applied online for Grain Harvest worker roles.

What roles have you had?
We started as grain samplers and grain handlers. We were provided with all the training that was needed to do the job, but our agronomy background also helped us to pick up the details quickly. We’ve also been forklift operators in the citrus season.

What are the main tasks you performed in these jobs?
As grain handlers we worked mainly in the sampling stand and interacting with truck drivers to analyse their product, and if the quality matched the company standards, got them into the system.

As a forklift operator in the citrus pack shed, I had to safely drive the forklift, moving pallets, fruit bins and all sort of fruit containers – making sure we always followed the quality procedures as directed by our supervisors.

You’ve just finished citrus season – what did you enjoy about this?
It was a really nice season because we had a lot of interaction with many international people. We both made a lot of friends and learned new skills.

You’re now coming back to grain harvest – why?
Because I had a great experience. The work is straight forward and it’s a really good working environment with great people. Working in the grain harvest also allows you to save money.

What’s the best part about working in the grain harvest?
While it is very busy, the work is relatively simple and you can keep learning a lot. We also love being in the countryside – the surrounding nature is beautiful and relaxing.

What skills have you learned since joining the Agri Labour Australia team?
We have learned so much more about farming, grains and storage. This was a new aspect of farming for us, so it’s been excellent at providing with great information to help us in our future agronomy careers.

What is the most challenging part of your work?
The most challenging part was having to make decisions on product quality that can affect the farmers. Sometimes they were not happy about the results, but we had to follow company standards and do what’s best for everyone.

What are your career goals?
We would like to become a full time agronomists here in Australia. We have the skills and knowledge to do it and believe we work hard to perform and do an excellent job.

How has ALA helped you while you’ve been working in Australia?
Having the chance to experience farming at lots of different levels and with different crops – it’s so interesting and we have loved learning.

How have you grown as a person since working with ALA?
We had some challenges because of not having much experience in that field. We both had to study and trust in ourselves to accomplish the goal in the best way possible.

What would you tell other people who are considering working for Agri Labour Australia?
Yes! Go for it! Do not hesitate! It’s a great company, pretty good payrates and their staff are always understanding and ready to listen about their workers concerns.

Where to from here?
Grain season again!

Would you like to stay in Australia? Why?
Yes. We think it’s a great country, where we can grow personally, professionally and financially.

Favourite place in Australia and why?
Sellicks Beach, SA. I love the beach and the quiet environment. It’s not very well known yet so it’s still kind of natural and it’s not far from the city. But, there’s also still a lot to see around this amazing country!

Agriculture. It is the very industry our country was founded upon and one that remains a constant and reassuring presence during these unknown and challenging times.

With the arrival of COVID-19, subsequent social distancing and self-isolation, the demand for meat and perishables hit an unprecedented high during March and April. This huge increase in consumer shopping saw farmers working harder than ever to meet these demands for quality produce. This rise in demand resulted in many businesses hiring more staff to meet immediate production needs while still laying the groundwork for winter crops.

For many, the agriculture industry provides an excellent platform for people to utilise existing skills that are transferrable across a range of sectors. It can be a win-win situation where people find rewarding new jobs and business operators in rural and regional Australia get the experience and knowledge from a wider pool of candidates who may not have previously considered agriculture as a career industry.

Casey Brown, Managing Director, Agri Labour Australia, says, ‘Agriculture has many facets. It’s not just about farming cattle and crops – there’s diversity, sociability and world leading technology applied throughout the industry that makes for solid job prospects. One area is Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) – this is now a huge part of agriculture and roles can be anything from business development managers and WHS officers right through to packhouse supervisors, mechanics and data analysts. This is just one sector – there really is endless opportunities across all fields of agriculture.’

There’s also plenty for those who don’t have a trade or key set of skills, with interesting roles happening all over Australia. People can find work anywhere from the Northern Territory all the way down to Tasmania, with many business farm owners and operators open to giving people the chance to prove themselves if they’re willing and show commitment to the job.

Another key facet of agriculture is the lifestyle associated with living in rural and regional areas. Having experienced extremely difficult times for several years with record breaking droughts and bushfires, these communities play a vital role in supporting all our farmers and the many people who come to work for a season or long term.

The inclusiveness, community events and lifestyle that country living offers is going to become even more attractive as COVID-19 abates and people focus more on the health and wellbeing of themselves and their families.

Agri Talent is the latest, exciting chapter for Agri Labour Australia. Currently celebrating our tenth year in the industry, Agri Talent is a culmination of the experience and success of Agri Labour Australia’s Permanent Division.

With the appointment of General Manager, Tim Chapman in 2018, the Permanent Division went from strength to strength – continuing to evolve and expand its capability to meet the recruitment needs of the diverse agriculture sector.

Officially launched on Wednesday 20 May, Agri Talent offer an extensive recruitment service to agribusinesses and the various organisations and communities that support Australia’s rural and regional communities. Experts in sourcing executive solutions, RPO/MSP, permanent placements and skilled trade roles, Agri Talent has a true understanding of the land and the specific needs of the agriculture industry.

Agri Talent delivers permanent recruitment solutions with a difference. Agri Talent consultants are each specialists across a range of agriculture sectors, giving clients confidence in their ability to identify and source the best permanent and professional candidates for their business.

Their reputation in the industry and commitment to the agriculture industry is well known and it’s this ongoing client acknowledgement, professional achievement and team growth that has progressed the division into forming its own identity.

Casey Brown, Managing Director, Agri Labour Australia says, ‘This is such an exciting step for Agri Labour Australia and showcases the hard work and commitment of our team in supporting the growth and success of the Australian agriculture industry. It’s been great to see this area of the business building rapidly and we know Agri Talent is going to continue to lead the way with their unique and client driven recruitment processes.’

‘From Paddock to Plate’ Agri Talent cover all areas of agriculture. From aquaculture, cattle, broadacre and FMCG, to medicinal, supply chain and logistics, horticulture, dairy, poultry, piggeries and everything in between, Agri Talent have an unrivalled specialist knowledge. Their expertise is supported by access to an extensive candidate database and vast digital reach, allowing them to source the right candidates who will add long term value to a client’s business.

For more information, visit Agri Talent.

While it might not be the usual crowd lined streets that pave Australian cities and towns for ANZAC Day this year, however, the spirit of mateship will still be felt strongly in honouring our servicemen and women on this important day.

This is the only time since WWII that ANZAC Day Celebrations have been cancelled. But, with the usual Aussie ingenuity that our country and the ANZAC’s were founded on, we will be remembering and paying our respects differently this year.

Here are some great ways we can all continue to support ANZAC day while observing social distancing measures.

Light Up the Dawn – At 6am on ANZAC Day, go to the end of your driveway, balcony or paddock and listen to a commemorative service. You can also sign a pledge to ‘Light Up the Dawn’. Take a photo of your ‘Dawn Service’ and post it to social media so that those who have served and continue to serve us can see the support and respect for their incredible sacrifices.

Live Services – From 5:30am onwards there will be a live broadcast of the National Memorial Service from the Australian War Memorial. You can access this through RSL Facebook links or on ABCTV, iView, Radio and online and allows you to pay your respect at the same time as your local community.

Show Some ANZAC Mateship – with so many alone during this time of isolation, it’s a great time to reach out and ‘check in’ on someone who would appreciate hearing from a mate.

Donate – the ANZAC Online Appeal is a vital element in continuing its support to Australian veterans and their families.

Agri Labour Australia strongly believes in supporting our ex servicemen and women. We look forward to continuing our activity on the Agri Veterans Program which assists in transitioning veterans into new and meaningful careers within the exciting Australian agriculture industry.

Lest We Forget