California Farm Jobs
Since California is such a large state, we have divided our farm and job listings up by region:
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Working in California
The third-largest state in the U.S., California boasts one of the most expansive and profitable agricultural industries in the Union, with more than 160,000sqmi of total land. Governing body California Department of Food and Agriculture oversees the manufacturing and production of food and related goods in the Golden State. The government department reports more than 80,000 farms operate within the state and produce more than 400 various crops and goods. California stands most notable for wine, cheese, milk, and almond exports.
California offers more than 43 million acres of arable land. The state devotes close to 16 million acres to grazing for cattle and livestock, while the remaining 27 million acres support crops. Urbanization and drought drastically reduce overall farm-land availability for crop growing and livestock raising, as cities like Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego continue to grow. Despite ongoing urban expansion, most farms range between 300 and 400 acres in size. The most prevalent areas to find California picking jobs include portions of Central California and North California. Workers in search of farmhand opportunities may also find employment throughout the southern region of the state; however, large urban metropolises and arid climates often limit the size and frequency of farms across the area.
In general, the diversity of denizens across the region provide ample opportunities for migrant workers and aspiring farmhands. Much of the state population possesses multilingual abilities, which caters to the heavy Spanish-speaking migrants from the bordering country of Mexico. Independent agricultural businesses like California Giant Berry Farms often hire masses of workers both seasonally and year-round to assist with daily tasks and rotational responsibilities. California also hosts approximately 5,000 corporate farms, which provide standardized hiring processes, pay scales, and unions.
Due to an expansive size, the West Coast state also offers diversity in climate, which further stimulates the reach of farms spanning from Northern to Southern California. Areas to the north of the Golden State historically feature milder, temperate climates with sharp distinctions between all four seasons. As workers travel south, climates shift to more sub-tropical classifications, with long periods of clear skies and warm year-round temperatures. However, eastern portions of the state remain dry, arid, and unusable for farming, as deserts like Colorado Desert, Great Basin Desert, and Mojave Desert, which contains Death Valley.
Wine production, which represents roughly $5.6 billion of total revenues generated by agriculture in the Golden State, encompasses close to 4,000 wineries, which represents more than half of the 7,000 or so total wineries in the United States. A large portion of wineries located in the state reside in the north-central region along the coast; however, the central temperate climates found throughout the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and surrounding valleys offer the best conditions to grow the grapes used in wine production. According to the Wine Institute, the sizable industry produces more than 875,000 jobs nationwide and includes manufacturing, shipping, merchandising, and administrative aspects of production.
Warmer year-round temperatures throughout the state bolster the local agricultural industry and generate upwards of $42 billion in annual revenues. Applicants looking for farmhand work or picking jobs on California farms typically need no real experience to gain employment. Hiring takes place on a regular basis for work on cattle ranches and traditional fruit and vegetable farms. Refer to the articles below for in-depth regional information on the California agricultural industry and available jobs.