Farm Worker

Crops/Commodities: Farm work: Watermelons. Perform manual and mechanical labor to install irrigation, maintain irrigation and plant watermelons. All job activities are required to be done cautiously as not to damage growing crops or product. Transplant watermelon; carry a tray of plants down the row, or ride a transplanter, and gently place seedlings into holes previously made by equipment and adequately pack dirt around each plant. Tend to and water seedlings. Move vines and fruit in the field in order to prevent damage by cultivation or harvest. Walk fields and uproot unwanted weeds and plants by hand and place in designated areas. Clean and maintain fields and work areas. Participate in irrigation activities. Set up and operate irrigation equipment. Clear and maintain irrigation ditches. Duties also include field sanitation. Harvest, grade, sort and load watermelons using hand tools. During the cutting process, a farm worker walks in a designated area selecting mature watermelons to be harvested by sight only. Once a watermelon has been selected for harvest, the cutter will sever the watermelon from the vine with a knife and place it in the designated area. The selection of mature watermelons to be harvested is based on appearance only considering the variances in shape, size, weight, and external color while also considering other factors such as location of vine, age of crop, number of times crop has been cut, growing conditions of crop, as well as variety of watermelons. Once the watermelon is severed from the vine, cutters determine the grade or class of the watermelon and discard any watermelons with defects which render them unmarketable. During the loading process, a farm worker walks in a designated area while lifting preselected watermelons, then pitches the watermelons to another farm worker who catches the watermelons and pitches them to another farm worker or gently places them in the designated area or transport vehicle. Watermelons are unloaded and packed by hand using aid of conveyor belts and sizing machines. In the packing process, watermelons are unloaded from harvest transport vehicle where employees lift watermelons from harvest vehicle and pass to another employee who gently places the watermelon on the in feed conveyer. The watermelon then travels into the packing facility where it is graded by hand and disbursed to the correct packing station by the sizing machine. An employee then lifts the fruit from the sizing station and gently places watermelons in bin while assuring count and pack layout for each bin is correct for their sizing station. Erecting boxes, placing pallets at stations and placing boxes at stations is a duty necessary to keep production flowing and is part of the packing process. All job activities are required to be done cautiously as not to damage growing crops or product. Workers are required to practice Good Agricultural Practices Policies.

Salary : $12