Farm and Crop Maintenance

Job content

Key Position Summary: •

Key duty is to establish and maintain crops (& pest targets) for field experiments at the Pakenham Field Station to the required agricultural commercial standards (and customer requirements).

• To maintain & repair (or facilitate repair) all trials machinery to the standard required for safe precision (accurate) trials use.

• To fully support the UK Field Team on all agronomy aspects (on and off-site including planting, maintenance & harvesting of crops) required to successfully deliver the total UK field trials programme on time.

• Support with general site/office maintenance and trial support as required.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Working closely and in collaboration with the Field Biology team, carries out all types of practical agronomic operations at the Field Station necessary to ensure quality crops and targets are provided for field experiments to the required commercial agricultural standards (& customer requirements).

2. This includes land preparation, planting, spraying plant protection products/fertiliser applications, irrigation, pest protection (e.g. birds, hares etc) and harvesting of crops.

3. Completes all allocated on-site crop maintenance tasks (as per job sheets) efficiently, on time and accurately (including record keeping on job sheets).

4. Working alongside the Senior Field Biologist/Field Biology Team implements the overall crop maintenance and rotational plan (including making accurate records of all cropping and maintenance activities).

5. Maintains trial crop blocks and grass pathways (& working barn areas) in a neat, tidy and professional manner, flagging up potential problems to the Senior Field Biologist or Field Biology Team (including when extra support/manpower is required) and working proactively to resolve issues and help the Field Biologists to meet all trial objectives.

6. Efficiently maintains and repairs (or facilitate repairs using external engineers) all farm machinery to ensure all equipment is fit for purpose and operates accurately and efficiently at all times and meets current HSE safety requirements.

7. Working closely with Field Biology Team will oversee and carry out the plot combining of all arable crop trials (on and off site) requiring yield assessments. This includes supporting/organising transport of the plot combine transport between trial locations.

8. Provide practical & agronomic assistance to the Field Biology Team at off-site trial sites as needed (including crop drilling and crop maintenance).

9. Ensure that all personal work, field operations and machinery maintenance are carried out to the required levels (to satisfy GLP and/or GEP trial compliance) and take responsibility for personal and team safety (following company safety policies and HSE guidance).

10. Understand and implement SynTech’s standard operating procedures/methodologies and undertake the necessary training to broaden your agronomic (crops, pests etc) and machinery expertise (including crop maintenance and machinery repairs).

11. Support to supervise any assistants or casual labour (e.g. hand weeding) on-site or during harvesting so they can execute their jobs safely, accurately and efficiently.

12. Communicate regularly and efficiently with the Senior Field Biologist on progression of allocated tasks, priorities of tasks, workload and issues.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Benefits:

• Flexitime

Schedule:

• Flexitime

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Bury St. Edmunds: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Experience:

• "On Farm" Agronomic: 2 years (required)

Licence/Certification:

• Driving Licence (required)

Work Location: In person