Job Duties:
We are seeking dedicated and hardworking individuals for our Watermelon & Purple Hull Peas season. This is a seasonal job and if hired, you are expected to complete the full contract period. Workers will perform assigned dutie4s as instructed by their supervisor. Duties may vary from time to time. Watermelon - related jobs primarily span agricultural production, harvesting, and packing. Workers are responsible for manual cultivation, identifying ripe fruit, manual harvesting, and may operate farm equipment. These roles require high physical stamina, endurance, and the ability to work outdoors in various weather conditions. Fruit Selection: Walking through fields to identify fully ripened melons based on color, stem color, and size. Picking & Loading: Manually cutting or picking the fruit and performing a "bucket brigade" or tossing system to load the melons onto field trucks or modified buses. Packaging: Sorting, labeling, and packing watermelons into cardboard display bins or boxes for grocery stores. Purple Hull Peas - Harvesting purple hull peas involves picking fully plump pods when they are about 50% purple. Monitor fields to pick pods when they are firm, fully developed, and half-to-fully purple. Remove overripe, underripe, or pest-damaged pods. Job duties include hand-picking & grading them for freshness and quality standards. Peas will be placed into green sacks, hauling the sacks to the end of the rows, and load them onto flatbed trucks. Workers are responsible for keeping count of the number of bags completed each day while working in fields. Miscellaneous Tasks: Shovel, haul, spread manure, dig holes and maintain ditches & trenches, irrigation maintenance. Remove debris and weeds using a variety of hand tools. May use farm equipment related to tasks associated with above crops. May repair fences and do repairs to irrigation systems and/or farm buildings.
Special Requirements:
Applicants must be 18 years or older. It is recommended that you have experience with Agricultural Equipment and knowledge of Agricultural Field work due to safety reasons related to possible equipment injury, heat stroke possibility, and food safety. Prolonged walking, bending, stooping, and the ability to frequently lift heavy produce (up to 60 lbs). All tools, equipment and supplies will be provided at no cost to workers. Work in extreme weather conditions in outdoor agricultural fields and involves exposure to sun, wind, rain, soil, mud, dust, heat, cold and other natural elements. Workers must be able to climb, stand, sit, stoop, squat, kneel, crouch, bend (from waist), push, pull, reach, and lift. Workers must be able to withstand working in the direct sunlight and weather conditions ranging from hot and humid weather, moderate rain, and cold while performing their required job duties. Hours and days of work may vary do to weather conditions.