Agricultural Equipment Operators
Also called Equipment Operator, Farm Equipment Operator, Loader Operator, or Rake Operator
What Agricultural Equipment Operators do
Agricultural Equipment Operators drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
Who tends to enjoy it
Hands-on
People who like building, fixing, working with tools, machines, plants, or animals.
Organizing
People who like keeping things accurate, orderly, and running on schedule.
Curious
People who like figuring things out, research, science, and solving problems.
What you'd actually do
- Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.
- Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
- Spray fertilizer or pesticide solutions to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases, using hand sprayers.
- Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.
- Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.
- Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.
- Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.
- Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.
A typical day involves
Skills that matter most
- Operation and Control
- Operations Monitoring
- Troubleshooting
- Active Listening
- Equipment Maintenance
- Repairing
What you'll need to know
- English Language
- Mechanical
- Public Safety and Security
- Mathematics
- Transportation
Where to study for this
College programs that commonly lead to this career, and how many US colleges offer each.
- Agricultural Power Machinery Operation 12 colleges
Related careers
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Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA), occupation 45-2091.00, used under CC BY 4.0 and modified by Whittle. Program links: NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. How we build these pages.