Field Laborer

Job description

During crawfish season, which runs mid-January to August, workers will manage water levels in fields for both rice and crawfish. Apply fertilizers and pesticides as needed. Monitor crawfish health and growth, including restocking bait fish and/or dry crawfish bait in crawfish traps as necessary. Harvest crawfish from traps using crawfish boats and grade crawfish by size using conventional graders while in the boat. After harvest, clean, re-grade, and sack live crawfish in air-conditioned barns into bags of 30 pounds each. At end of crawfish season, the small crawfish (known as seedlings) are moved to another field which has been prepared and the existing field is drained and all traps removed, cleaned, repaired and stored. Prepare fields for aquaculture of rice and crawfish (mowing, discing, leveling, tilling), using tractors and attached implements, including construction/maintenance of levees as needed. Plant rice seed in September in the fields where the crawfish seedlings are located. (Rice is not harvested on this farm; the rice is used solely for food for the crawfish.)

There are few typical days and workers may be required to change duties often and engage in various general functions for maintenance and repair of equipment and buildings used in crawfish farming. Daily duties may vary depending on crawfish status, weather, and field conditions.

Special Requirements

Frequent stooping or bending over takes place in the crawfish boat; the crawfish traps float by the side of the boat and the bending over occurs when the boat passes the traps and the workers need to pull the traps from the water, empty the traps, then return the traps to the water. This is done repetitively throughout the crawfish field. The crawfish are loaded into drums which hold approximately 50 pounds of crawfish, which are unloaded off of the boats when they return to the crawfish road (elevated road which goes through the crawfish field).