FairPick: Simple Harvest Scale

Electronic Harvest Scale System for Hand-Picked Fruits and Vegetables

FairPick automates hand-harvesting produce.

FairPick's easy-to-transport weigh station includes a legal-for-trade scale with sunlight-readable screen.

In the field, the FairPick scale gives pickers clear voice commands in multiple, user-selected languages.

Program individual weigh stations using RFID (radio-frequency identification) cards with specific configuration settings and link employees, container RFID tags, and other information to each weigh entry.

Read more, or contact us, to learn why FairPick is a better weigh to harvest!


“There’s going to be more technology and efforts toward automating and becoming more efficient … this is certainly a way to do that, bringing technology out to the farm, out in the fields. For payroll, it’s a beautiful thing.”
John Raap, Prosser, WA

“If we move to pay by the pound, it takes all of the tension out of the equation, it keeps the harvest staff doing the picking honest, and it keeps me, doing the paying honest … I like that concept. It’s better for everyone involved in the harvest process.”
Mike Omeg, The Dalles, OR
In “Paying Fruit Pickers Per Pound” (2013), Growing Produce reported that one grower overpaid his pickers by almost $20,000 one week because bucket weight totals for blueberries (estimated) exceeded warehouse weight (actual) by 40,000 pounds. With the FairPick system, accurate pick weights could result in significant payroll savings for growers.
Growing Produce



"Best money spent this year."

 

Beth McQuaig McIntyre, Abbeville, GA
FairPick Pro harvest farm scale system for fruit and vegetable pickers
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Our Scales Follow the Rules

The FairPick system (scale & software) are NTEP-certified. Compliance is a priority in today's farming environment. Use an accurate, legal-for-trade scale system that keeps you out of trouble!

NTEP CC#17-087

How it works

  • Set up container, employee, piece rate, and wage information on your online portal.

  • Using the Registration Station, assign employee badges (RFID cards)

  • Create configuration cards to program the weighing station with tare weights and other harvest information. Before harvest begins, program the weighing station with the configuration card

FairPick is a digital scale and a mobile time clock. Clock employees in and out, and keep good records for minimum wage, non-productive, overtime, and paid break calculations.

During harvest, the scale weighs and records precise weight, GPS location, time, and optional container RFID tag, Batch ID, and Location ID, and links it to the employee with a scan of the employee’s RFID badge. Employee receipts show amount weighed and a running total for that day.

  1. Place container on scale

  2. Scan employee badge

  3. Scan container tag (optional)

  4. Remove container

  5. Print receipt (optional)

With FairPick, growers pay only for the exact weight of produce picked, not an estimate, and full product traceability.

 

It takes only seconds!

Bring the scale within range of a Wi-Fi internet network, and upload harvest data through a 2nd Sight router or a personal mobile hotspot to the secure 2nd Sight server. The FairPick works all day without an Internet connection.

Use the web portal to view FairPick data. Download harvest data so it can be opened in Microsoft Excel, or use 2nd Sight's standard Employee Receipt, Daily, Overtime, and Pay Period Reports to make payroll quick and easy. You can download reports to import into many payroll software packages. Fully automate data entry to reduce errors and decrease accounting costs.

FairPick ensures fair pay for both the grower and the picking crew, and it’s faster and more efficient than the punch card method.

FairPick data collection can also provide better harvest and crop yield data for more informed farm management decisions.

 

FairPick -- A better weigh to harvest!

Farm Management

Easily accessible wage, weight, yield, labor, and time clock data
Year to year records to compare and inform future decisions
One-year ROI for many growers due to reduced labor costs
Cleaner bins with higher quality produce
GPS harvest yield data per field location
No more overpayments

Safety

Stabilizing feet steady the scale on hills and uneven surfaces
Adjustable-height scale for good ergonomics and safe lifting
Reduced bag or bucket weights minimize strain on workers
No need to climb ladders with partially filled containers
Traceability data for improved produce safety
Social distancing maintained in the field

Field Operations

Sturdy RFID cards instead of flimsy punch cards
Quiet fields without picker arguments
Reduced puncher bottlenecks
Quick wireless data upload
No more guesswork
Cleaner bins

Legal Compliance

Documented rest breaks, lunch breaks, and nonproductive time
NTEP-certified, legal-for-trade, ruggedized Mettler-Toledo scale
Searchable, detailed, and organized digital records
Cloud data storage for long-term recordkeeping
Minimum wage report flags
Field receipts for workers

Human Resources

Employee time data enables job costing, minimum wage, and break pay calculations
Automated reports import into existing accounting and payroll software
Searchable, digital records quickly resolve pay disputes
Fair compensation reduces staff turnover
Accurate, streamlined payroll process
Minimal manual data entry

Traceability

Consumers want to know more about what they eat. The ability to track produce from the field to final consumer will become an industry standard. Many processors and packing houses continue to adopt systems that aid in produce traceability. However, for this tracing to be complete, growers must also implement systems to fully track their produce back to the date harvested, field, and picker. The ability to quickly generate accurate records of the who, what, and where, paired with the information to identify other potentially affected harvested produce, are important aspects of fruit and vegetable traceability.

In recent years, food born illness outbreaks have been linked to spinach, bagged salad, onions, peaches, romaine, and sprouts. When contaminated produce is detected by consumers and retailers, there is great value for the industry to be able to tell the full story of the affected product. Traceability systems can help maintain growers’ and processors’ reputations (curtailing negative consumer opinions about a particular crop), decrease the amount of produce inventory that will be discarded (minimizing waste and financial loss), and help with preventative measures that can be taken in the future. Produce tracking also helps keep consumers safe, reducing the number and gravity of food borne illness cases. When food tracking is poor, limited, or takes too long to "trace back" the product through the supply chain, the specialty crop industry as a whole suffers.

2nd Sight hardware and software packages focus on collecting farm labor data in the field. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, field data is a critical piece of the traceability puzzle. While tracking labor data, our systems are also logging the first human contact with the fruits or vegetables. To stop contamination at the source, you must be able to identify the source.

Date & Time Stamp

Every clock in, clock out, and log event is automatically tagged with a date and time so you know when employees performed specific jobs

GPS

The handhelds register GPS coordinates, when available, every time the software logs an event to help pinpoint a field location

Crew

Crew lists can aid in identifying groups of employees who may have been linked to a specific food safety concern

Location

Growers can tag additional location information to specific jobs such as field name, block number, and row number

Employee

Employees utilize RFID badges or barcodes programmed with their names to scan in and out of jobs and log pieces and produce harvested

Container Tracking

Many apps feature container tracking modes that prompt employees to scan RFID tags or barcodes adhered to buckets, totes, or bins out in the field to link produce to pickers more precisely

Digital Records

Quickly search and filter digital logs and reports by date, location, employee, crop variety, and container tracking ID to identify who, what, and where when produce safety issues arise

Accessible Information

Data is secure and backed up on the Cloud and can be accessed through any computer connected to the Internet

Fruit & Vegetable Compatibility

  • Apples

  • Apricots/

  • Artichokes

  • Asparagus

  • Avocados

  • Blackberries

  • Blueberries

  • Boysenberries

  • Broccoli

  • Cherries

  • Cacao

  • Cotton

  • Figs

  • Gooseberries

  • Grapefruit

  • Grapes

  • Grape Leaves

  • Huckleberries

  • Kiwifruit

  • Lemons

  • Lettuce

  • Limes

  • Litchi

  • Mango

  • Nectarines

  • Olives

  • Oranges

  • Peaches

  • Pears

  • Peppers

  • Plums

  • Raspberries

  • Saffron

  • Squash

  • Strawberries

  • Tangelos

  • Tangerines

  • Tea Leaves

  • Tomatoes

  • Zucchini

 

Container Weighing Compatibility

  • Bags

  • Baskets

  • Boxes

  • Buckets

  • Clamshells

  • Crates

  • Flats

  • Lugs

  • Pails

  • Totes

  • Trays


Components of the FairPick Fruit and Vegetable Farm Scale System

Weighing Station Scale

Mobile field unit that records weigh events, GPS locations, and other harvest information.

Features:
  • Voice commands available in English, Spanish, French, and German
  • Real-time digital weight display on instructional screen
  • Time clock buttons to record accurate clock in and clock out events
  • Adjustable-height scale for better picker ergonomics
  • Stabilizing "feet" and built-in leveling mechanisms to ensure the device is sturdy and scale is level on uneven ground
  • All-day battery life with overnight charger
  • 16.5” x 20.5” NTEP-certified scale with a weighing capacity of 150 lbs. and an accuracy of ± 0.01 lbs.
  • Thermal receipt printer (does not use expensive ink)
  • Spare receipt roll compartment
  • Durable foam-filled tires
  • Latching Lid to protect electronics during transport and from moisture

Battery Backup

Portable back-up battery for the FairPick weighing station. Never fear an uncharged battery!

Features:
  • Easy-grip handle
  • Sturdy, protective case
  • Back-up power for a full day's harvest

Employee Badge Registration Station

Office-based computer station used to assign employee badges, program container RFID tags, and create configuration, and upload cards.

Features:
  • Use your own Windows-based personal computer or laptop
  • Plug the RFID Reader/Writer into any standard USB port
  • Registration Station app download for one or more users
  • Easy 2nd Sight internet router setup

Customer Portal Website

Secure website where growers manage employees, harvest settings, uploaded data, and reports.

Features:
  • Import employee lists to save time
  • Create Employee Profiles to track minimum wage and break information
  • Add multiple container tare weights or set to use individual tare weights
  • Turn container RFID tag tracking on and off
  • Set and change piece rates per container before, during, or after harvest
  • Enter a minimum scan time between weighs to prevent "double-scanning"
  • Add additional Portal users with different admin roles
  • Easily filter data
  • Set the Pay Period to weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly beginning on any day of the week
  • View standard and custom reports and download them in CSV format
  • Edit, add, and delete data while maintaining a clear audit trail