One valley in the “Gem State” is wrapping up a successful harvest.
Shawn Scoresby runs Haggerman Watermelon. In the spring, he begins marking off his fields for the year’s watermelon crop. To help with wind protection, he plants wheat in-between the rows.
Come harvest time the workers hit the field. The first crew goes through examining the melons to see which are ripe and ready to go, and then cut they them loose for the next crew. The second crew comes in to load them onto the trailer.
From there, the melons are sorted by size by a conveyor belt. They are then stored until shipment and the melons typically only sit at his farm for one day before they head to stores.
“The quicker we can get them out there, the end product is a lot better for the consumer,” Scoresby said.
He says that his operation would not be able to run without the H-2A worker program.