We’re hosting an Ask Me Anything event on Wednesday Dec 27th, 2017 at 11am MST with Susan Chicovsky from @greenmountainharvest to answer all your trimming questions and to provide you with insights on regulations and industry changes.
Susan Chicovsky, is the owner of Green Mountain Harvest. She runs a team of over 50 trimmers who help trim for Colorado growers. Green Mountain Harvest employs only commercially trained and experienced MED Badged trimmers. She has achieved top national leadership status in an international healthcare company, as a business consultant for small businesses, and has presented her advice, guidance & expertise on the radio, TV, national seminars and industry workshops.
Susan is passionate about compliance, and non-contaminated medicine for patients. She has dabbled in the restaurant industry, ordained ceremonies, managed multiple healing practices, health centers and an insecticide company. Susan is committed to helping people heal in a way that works for them as well as helping business owners be successful.
Currently, Susan operates the oldest, first cleared and compliant marijuana harvest and
trim company, in Denver. She is a national expert and spokesperson on harvesting and the trimming industry.
Start posting questions now to get the party started!
I was actually recently invited here by @nick to check out the community (honestly I think he’s going to have a tough time getting rid of me now that I’ve seen this place!) Really digging the environment here, honestly reached out to several groups in Colorado looking for some business to business networking (something like PNG or BNI groups) and didn’t find anything. Saw this site, clicked on a whim and here I am today!
Great question. The first is that hand trimming maintains the quality of the bud and product.
Secondly there is less contamination due to our proper procedures. Thirdly, patients and rec
users love the hand trimmed product. They often ask “is this hand trimmed”
I’m one of the owners of the Autoflower Network, an online forum community with over 25,000 registered home/hobbyist growers. We focus on information on and the cultivation of autoflowering cannabis, a type of cannabis sativa/indica that has been hybridized with cannabis ruderalis, allowing them to mature and flower automatically based on genetics instead of diminishing light/seasons. Typically autos go from seed to harvest in 70-90 days. Our market is the home grower but I’m working on an education campaign to push for commercial viability with autos to be grown alongside photoperiod plants. There’s a commercial farm next to Pueblo, CO called “Los Sueños Farms” and they supposedly grow autoflowers as a bumper crop (I need to verify that though, it’s a huge place!)
We see a lot of trimmer jobs out by Avondale and that area; at night you can see the sky fill with blurple LED lighting from the greenhouses. I also notice that on a lot of ads I see that the trimmer jobs are mobile (meaning travel seems to always be expected.) Is that something that is pretty common with trimmer jobs?
Sounds very exciting. Most trim companies travel as does GMH. We work along the front range from Pueblo to Greeley. Although most of our work is in Denver. There is a travel and gas charge for anything over 1 hour.
We have worked in Steamboat and the grow actually paid for room and board, they needed trimmers that strongly.
I was also wondering if you could walk me through the process if I was someone wanting to apply for a trimmer position? I have several friends from out of state that have asked me how to go about it!
For starters, can you apply for a trimmer position in a legal state if you are not a resident? Are there exceptions or appeals that can be requested if not?
How far up the chain with a trimming company will a MED badge get you? Is there an average annual salary for trimmers?
Is there difference for KEY badge responsibilities with this type of job?
How often do compliancy issues come up for a business of this type? In light of the Sweet Leaf incident in the news (granted this is not that type of business,) would there be any concerns for someone wanting to get into this type of position beyond that of joining any cannabis related industry job?
@greenmountainharvest What are your thoughts on partnerships between a company like GMH and automatic trimming machine companies? Is there room for partnership? What would this look like?
I was also wondering if you could run us through the process if a grower or operation wanted to hire you for a trimming job (a condensed version would be fine!) What are some common questions you get on the phone from potential customers? What are common concerns?
@jordan
In order to work in Colorado, you must be a resident since this is required to get the Colorado
State MED badge. You must have a badge to work in the Colorado cannabis industry.
The badge allows you to work on site wherever the job is. I am more familiar
with Colorado rules than other states.
Trimmers are usually paid by the hour. GMH also has supervisors which are paid more.
According to the Division of Labor, we are required to bring in our OSHA cleared tools
to maintain compliancy.
The Colorado support badge is more an entry level badge. Key badge holders can work with
money and management issues.
Due to the fact that a trimming company is an ancillary business, we operate under a different
set of issues and regulations. According to the Division of Labor, we are a contract company
and must have Workman’s Compensation and pay taxes. This makes GMH a legal and compliant
company.
However GMH has instituted compliancy rules to help protect the grower and employees. I work with
the Governors Office and Department of Health in setting better business practices. One is covering
the trim tables with food grade brown butcher paper since we are working with a consumable product.
The other issue has been having pesticides, chemicals and insecticides in the trim room. Our growers
have removed these products from the trim room so as not to contaminate the product or the trimmers
lungs.
The main issues that show up for us, is jobs not ready for us when scheduled.
@Jordan
GMH only hires commercially trained trimmers who have handled both wet and dry trimming and harvesting.
Three months experience is necessary. The industry is all about production at this point. GMH has a Trimmer Training school for trimmigrants from other states that allows them to get the hands on experience for 5 days at no cost to the grow. We can hire them at this point.
@Jordan
Most common question is how much product can a trimmer do in 8 hours. GMhH’s trimmers are required to trim 1 pound to 1/2 pound of dry per 8 hours. They are required to do a minimum of 5000 grams of wet product per day. This also is dependant on how the product is presented to us. If its the whole plant this takes quite a bit longer. When the plant is noticed and hung to dry its more accessible to be trimmed.
