Crop Farm Workers
Perform routine tasks in producing crops such as cereals, cotton, fruit (including wine grapes), grains, mushrooms, nuts, oilseeds, pulses, rice, sugar cane and vegetables.
Harvest week at Kellerman's Farm
You are a farm worker at harvest time, moving between picking, packing and a few jobs around the machinery shed. It is 6am and the day is forecast to reach the high thirties by noon. The buyer wants forty crates by afternoon, and the crew is a person short.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I want every row in block three picked today. Some of the fruit at the end is not quite at the colour the buyer wants, but it will probably do. Pick the lot, yeah?
Pick everything as asked, so the crop is in before the rain
The unripe fruit goes in the crates, and the buyer sends back a quarter of the load. The extra work was wasted, and the farm's name takes a knock. Picking is about knowing what the buyer wants, not just clearing the rows.
Pick only what is perfectly ripe, and leave the end rows without a word
The load is good, but Frank finds out the next morning that the end rows are wet and spoiling. He would have picked more if he had known what you saw. Telling him why you left them would have helped.
Pick the ripe fruit, mark the rest and ask Frank to check it
Frank walks the end rows, agrees some can wait and picks a smaller amount today. The buyer gets what was ordered, and the remaining fruit is picked later in better shape.
I feel a bit sick and my head hurts. I have only had a little water. I do not want to leave the row because the crew is short and I do not want to let you down.
Tell her to rest in the shade with water, then let Frank know
Kim sits in the shade for fifteen minutes and drinks water. Frank sends her to a cooler job in the packing shed. She is relieved. Heat can catch anyone out, especially in the first week.
Tell her to push on for another hour until the heat of the day passes
Kim keeps picking in the hottest part of the morning, and gets dizzy and has to be driven back to the shed. She loses the afternoon and the crew is shorter than before. Heat illness does not wait for a convenient moment.
Give her your water bottle and tell her to stay in the row but slow down
Kim feels a bit better but is still in full sun. Twenty minutes later she is no better, and Frank asks why nobody told him. Water helps, but she also needed shade and a break.
I am spraying block two this afternoon and I want you on the mix. The suit and mask are stiff and hot today, and it is only a short job. Do we really need to put the full gear on?
Skip the mask and suit because it is only a short job and the day is hot
You work without protection, and by evening your throat and eyes sting. A call to the poison line follows and you miss the next day. The gear is there because short jobs still use strong products.
Wear the full protective gear and follow the label, and take breaks in the shade
The gear is hot and heavy, but you finish the mix safely and feel fine afterwards. Bruno logs the job and the spray times. The label and the gear exist because the product is not harmless.
Wear the gear but skip the written log, since there is no time
You stay protected, but later a buyer asks for spray records and the gap makes the farm look careless. Keeping records is part of the job, even on a hot day.
How it went
The last crates are loaded at dusk, you are tired and sunburnt and the rain arrives overnight. Crop work is physical, depends on the weather, and asks you to notice small changes before they become big ones. Could you work outdoors on a rhythm set by the seasons?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The yellow patch in row nine
A fictional case set in a family-run fruit and vegetable farm in the middle of harvest, with picking crews, irrigation and a spray shed.
The situation
Sunita was a farm worker on a family vegetable property outside a small town. On her morning walk along the irrigation lines she noticed a patch of leaves near the end of row nine that had turned a pale yellow. The rest of the block looked healthy, and the harvest crew was starting on the other side of the farm. Her boss, Frank, was busy because a buyer had asked for an early delivery, and Sunita was new enough to wonder whether she was being fussy.
What they did
Sunita photographed the patch, marked the spot with a stake and told Frank when he stopped for a break. He rang the agronomist, who came out that afternoon and took samples from the plants and soil. Meanwhile Sunita checked the nearby rows and reported that two other spots looked slightly pale. The crew was told to avoid walking through the affected rows on their way to the next block.
How it turned out
The agronomist found an early problem with the soil moisture in one corner, and the irrigation was adjusted for that block only. Only a few plants were lost. Frank asked Sunita to do a short walk of the irrigation lines each morning from then on, and mentioned her photo in his next chat with the buyer.
What would you do?
- Would you have said something if you were new and worried about being fussy?
- Why might a photo and a marker be more useful than just telling the boss?
- What would you want to know about a crop before deciding it was healthy?