TABLE 3.
Farmworker Tasks Sorted by Work Rate
| Task | n | Male, n (%) | Age Mean (SD), y |
Work Rate Median (Min–Max) |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground pruning | 31 | 6 (19) | 41 (13) | 22.3 (0–389.9) |
Removing, trimming, and thinning plants. Motions include walking, standing, and bending with repetitive hand movements. |
| Sorting | 49 | 13 (27) | 42 (14) | 45.7 (0.7–3184.3) |
Dividing harvested crop by grade/size. Motions include standing with repetitive arm and hand movements. |
| Packing | 23 | 7 (30) | 39 (10) | 106.9 (0–597.4) |
Loading and unloading boxes. Motions include sitting, standing, assembling boxes, and packing and moving boxes. |
| Supervising | 18 | 14 (78) | 41 (12) | 187.9 (7.1–558.3) |
Overseeing workers and other tasks not directly working on crops. Motions include driving, walking, standing, and communicating with farmworkers. |
| Carrying | 8 | 8 (100) | 37 (12) | 225.1 (10.7–1103.6) |
Moving ready-packed crop or other materials. Motions include bending, walking, and lifting bulky materials. |
| Harvesting, low | 60 | 38 (63) | 34 (13) | 228.0 (6.2–665.7) |
Harvesting into a container either attached to body or carried. Motions include walking, standing, bending, and reaching. |
| Pruning, high | 73 | 33 (45) | 37 (11) | 280.9 (13.6–1229.9) |
Removing, thinning, training branches, and vegetation. Motions include walking and lifting tools above the waist with repetitive hand motions. |
| Multiple tasks | 70 | 67 (96) | 39 (13) | 289.9 (0–2645.3) |
Combination of other tasks |
| Irrigating | 71 | 71 (100) | 39 (11) | 290.3 (0–1652.4) |
Carrying, lifting, and setting irrigation pipes, opening and adjusting water valves, and reeling in irrigation lines. Motions include walking, bending, and squatting. |
| Hoeing/raking | 29 | 13 (45) | 35 (11) | 340.3 (10.3–1009.1) |
Using a hoe or rake to weed and remove plants. Motions include walking, hunching over, and dragging materials with the tools. |
| Shoveling | 9 | 9 (100) | 39 (12) | 367.5 (6.1–589.2) |
Using a shovel to lift, dig, and move material such as soil, nuts, or hulls. Motions include walking, standing, and shoveling. |
| Harvesting, high | 110 | 81 (74) | 38 (11) | 411.3 (7–1766.2) |
Hand harvesting, usually stone fruit. Motions include walking, carrying ladder, reaching, placing crop into container worn on the worker, and carrying to a bin. |
| Groundskeeping | 12 | 10 (83) | 50 (11) | 702.6 (80.3–2219.1) |
Planting and maintaining vegetation not grown as crops on university campus including athletic fields, lawns, trees, shrubs, flowerbed, etc. Motions include driving open air vehicles, mowing, pruning, planting, and weeding. |