Vacancy caducado!
Spear Spring Farm
Farm/Field Operations Manager(s)
2024
Spear Spring Farm is looking for an established couple to manage the Farm/Field Operations.
Great long-term opportunity for the right couple. Minimum three-year commitment.
About Us:
We are a diversified, organic method vegetable farm in Warren, Maine, looking for an established couple to take over operations, ideally on a medium - to long-term basis. Spear Spring Farm is an historic 170-acre diversified farm dating back to 1736. Our property includes about 40 cleared acres and roughly 130 acres of forest. It straddles Route 1 and continues down to the St. George River. We have been cultivating on about 5 acres, but up to 12 acres have been cultivated in the past 10-15 years. We acquired the farm in 2016. Prior to that it was vacant for many years. Going even further back, a family had operated it in a variety of ways – vegetables, pick your own strawberries, etc.
We have added a second well, a 30’x80’ propagation house, two 30’x90’ high tunnels, a 24’x30’ wash/pack building with seasonal water, heat, and two large walk in coolers, a 20’ insulated storage trailer with CoolBot refrigeration, and a 24’x24’ farm store. All of the current cultivated acreage can be irrigated from a well or a pond. We sell through our farm store, CSA, and to a growing roster of restaurants and markets.
Our vision is to be a diversified farm that operates sustainably both economically and environmentally, growing food that is good for people. Local diversified farms are good for nature and important for eating healthy, but we can only have them if farmers can earn a living wage, including sending their kids to college and saving for retirement. We would like to achieve that operating efficiency, and serve as a beacon for others to do the same. Our current partner, who has ably and wonderfully gotten us to where we are today, would like to focus on new activities that are synergistic with our growing and educational mission, like farm-to-table dining, event programming and agritourism.
About You:
This is a unique opportunity to run a well-equipped farm, with financial security, while bringing your own creativity and passion to the table. Important attributes for our new operating partners will include: sharing our vision; relevant farm experience and training; high energy; honesty; transparency; resiliency; commitment; enthusiasm. You will need to be good partners to us, as we will be to you. Compensation is TBD, but likely will include housing on the farm, a modest stipend ($600/wk?) and a percentage of operating cash flow (revenue minus direct costs of growing and selling, like labor, seed and other supplies, etc.). Housing for the first year will be in a 3-year old, solar powered, off-grid cabin. After a year of commitment, you may then be able to take over the original 1763 brick farmhouse, which has been updated with new kitchen, bathrooms, furnace, etc.
The ideal candidates will have:
- 3-5 years minimum experience working on a successful diversified, organic method farm, with significant responsibility for crop planning and field/farm operations, including team management
- An agricultural degree, or other formal ag training
- Ability and willingness to work with farm equipment – tractor, irrigation systems, vehicles, chain saw skills, etc.
- Ability to work collaboratively with others – the current management team consists of the owners/investors and the current farm managers who will be shifting their focus to expanding other areas of the farm business. The ability to work as part of this team to achieve the overall goals of the farm: to operate in harmony and efficiency with each other; to communicate effectively and manage expectations of both customers & staff; to lead by example and foster a healthy and creative working environment; to share ideas and execute the decisions of the management team; are all critical aspects of the role.
- Ability to problem solve – Mother Nature delights in challenging even our best laid plans. The ability to see a problem and find a solution is an important skill.
- Familiarity with Quickbooks, general bookkeeping skills, Microsoft Excel/Word, social media
- Knowledge of market vegetables, growing zones, soil health concepts, planting techniques, cultivation techniques, natural pest management techniques
- Healthy respect for wildlife, including pests, as part of our ecosystem
- Ability to hire and manage a crew – we have had a crew of 5-7 field staff in the summer/height of season (some part-time and some full time), with another 2-3 people dedicated part-time to the farm stand and a few volunteers that help out as they can – training and maintaining harmony and motivation among the crew is a critical part of the management role
- Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility – We are looking for mature adults that understand and embrace the responsibility of running a farm. You must believe in our vision, our principles, and work to be good partners to us, as we will be to you, fostering an environment of mutual respect and trust, with transparency and good communication
- Ability to commit to a 3-5 year time frame.
Resources Available:
- Off Grid Solar Bunkhouse (sleeps two) – There is a very private, 3 year old off-grid solar powered bunkhouse 12’ x 24’ with a private bathroom available for the farm/field operations managers to live in to start. After the first year (exact timing TBD), you could then move into the main farmhouse after the current farm managers have moved into their new home.
- 1 – 80’ Propagation House with thermostatically controlled side walls, overhead watering system, various height tables, seeding systems for soil blocking, paper pots, microgreens, automated curtain system, overhead fans and end wall fan
- 2 – 96’ High Tunnels with internal frost-free hydrants for irrigation, overhead fans, end wall fan, thermostatically controlled side walls, permanent beds, roller-hook trellising system
- 2 nearly new Kabota 4700 tractors (one manual and one HST) with a variety of implements: rototiller for breaking into fallow fields, disc harrow, soil conditioner, 2 brush hogs, post-hole digger, spader, flail mower, York rake, bed shaper, bed lifter and backhoe
- Ford F150 Farm truck – good condition
- Transit Delivery Van – good condition
- 24’x24’ Farm Stand – New in 2019
- State of the Art Wash/Pack Facility – New in 2020 – with 2 large walk-in coolers, on demand hot water, heating, large salad spinner, bubbler, three bay sink, weigh/pack area
- 8’ x 20’ Insulated Shipping Container Coolbot/Dry Storage
- Solar Deer and Wildlife Fencing for about 1.5 acres (moveable, used to fence individual section, not a single area)
- Tractor Shed w/Heated Workshop, Tool Storage, chest freezers for Farm Stand, 2 Open Bays
- 4-Wheeler ATV
- Terratek Bed Harvester
- Large selection of small tools and wheelbarrows, including Jang 3 row seed and Earthway single row seeder, cover crop seed spreader, Terratek finger weeder, Hoss high-arch wheel hoe, etc.
- Irrigation – layflat, drip irrigation, overhead wobblers, irrigation pump for use in irrigating from our pond
- Large volume of 15 year weed cloth (for long season crops like tomatoes and squash), various weight row covers, insect netting
- Large volume of silage tarps in various sizes for soil and weed management, bed flipping
- On Grid Staff House – with kitchenette, bathroom and dining area
How to Apply:
- Please send a cover letter detailing your interest in our farm, your relevant experience and why you would be a good fit for our team in either a Word document or as a PDF.
- Resume with 3 professional and 2 personal references (with contact information)
Email cover letter, resume and references (or any questions). We will respond promptly to all complete applications.
Thank you for your interest in Spear Spring Farm! We look forward to learning more about you!
Vacancy caducado!