Follow Your Calling With These Careers in Farming

You can take advantage of many diverse skills with an agriculture job. Some of the most common types of careers related to farming include:

Manual Labor

Farm owners hire both skilled and unskilled workers to perform a variety of manual tasks. Many of these duties require the use of tools and brute strength, such as:

• Planting and harvesting crops.
• Caring for animals, from fertilization through maturity.
• Maintaining or repairing specialized equipment.

Agricultural sales

The agricultural industry offers a terrific place to put your sales and marketing skills to work. Clients include farmers and other agricultural workers. You’ll be called upon to:

• Demonstrate the functionality of new equipment.
• Sell goods like animal feed, seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides.
• Cultivating new clients, usually in rural service areas.

Administrative roles

These support professionals provide services to workers throughout the agriculture industry. They handle tasks like:

• Office management.
• Bookkeeping.
• Working with vendors.

Scientific positions

Specialists use advanced science and math skills to solve complex agricultural problems. These professionals concentrate on the principles of engineering, biology, zoology, chemistry, and geology that’s used for:

• Designing and evaluating a wide range of equipment and systems.
• Overseeing manufacturing processes.
• Improving crops, livestock, and food production.

There are many different career opportunities in the agriculture industry, ranging from manual labor positions that require a high school diploma or GED and advanced scientific careers that demand a master’s degree.

Animal husbandry includes jobs that directly involve animals. Any time you work with the livestock, animal husbandry is involved, including:

• Milking cows.
• Feeding sheep.
• Moving pigs.
• Maintaining bee colonies.
• Collecting eggs.

Positions range from ranch managers who supervise agricultural establishments that raise livestock to drivers that haul the animals from place to place. These career options center around the production of meat and dairy products. Employees in this career field spend most of their day outdoors, in all weather conditions. The work is often quite strenuous, dirty, and encompasses long hours on your feet.

Educational requirements

Though an academic degree in agricultural or animal sciences is helpful to secure and perform management positions, many people are able to advance their positions through hands-on experience.

Careers in animal husbandry

From management opportunities to entry-level positions, there are loads of jobs in this sector, including:

• Ranch Manager
• Livestock Hauler
• Beekeeper
• Animal Care Technician
• Veterinarian

Careers in farming also include a variety of agricultural business people. These professionals ensure that our country produces enough food and that our food supply is safe for us to eat. Agricultural business professionals typically:

• Develop advertising campaigns.
• Deal with environmental issues.
• Conduct fieldwork at farms or food production facilities.

Some typical job duties in the agriculture business realm may include:

• Monitoring food production facilities to ensure they’re in line with government regulations.
• Overseeing the development of crops and animals that are sold from agricultural entities.
• Providing guidance to farmers that maximize profits, such as planning crop rotations, maintaining budgets, and hiring personnel.
• Ensuring crops aren’t compromised by abnormal or illegal imports.

Educational requirements

Several career tracks in this area of agriculture require only a high school diploma. However, an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in agricultural science or another related field may result in higher pay. Although all scientists must have a bachelor’s degree, many also have a master’s or doctorate.

Various job titles

The increasing demand for large amounts of food will continue to create jobs in this field for many years to come, including:

• Agricultural Inspector
• Agricultural Manager
• Agricultural Lawyer
• Agricultural Lobbyist
• Agriculture Marketing Specialist

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Advances in agriculture made during the “green revolution” between the 1940s through the 1960s are responsible for today’s highly efficient food production. As populations increase, farmers are responsible for growing more food with less land. They typically:

• Utilize critical thinking skills.
• Perform scientific experiments.
• Develop innovative ways to enhance production.

Many agricultural careers within the sciences collect specimens from farms and food processing plants to gain a better understanding of the way our food is raised and produced. Often their mission is to increase the production rate and quality of our national food supply by creating solutions to the problems facing specific farms or even the food processing industry at large. Scientists are working on sustainable solutions to the world’s food supply challenges by:

• Focusing on the growth and production of plants for food and other practical uses.
• Studying the ecological health of fish populations in hatcheries, natural lakes, and the open ocean.
• Working with agricultural organizations like plant nurseries to increase crop yields.
• Developing solutions that help protect crops from pests.
• Working with supermarkets and transportation companies to reduce spoilage.

Education

Most specialists in the food sciences are required to have a bachelor’s degree. However, many entering this career field go on to earn a master’s or doctorate from an accredited college or university.

Job titles

Opportunities in this field are growing fast as responsible farming practices become even more essential in the coming decades, including:

• Agronomist
• Fisheries Biologist
• Horticulturist
• Horticulture Technician
• Nutrient Management Specialists

If you’ve got a knack for sales, welding, or mechanics, consider a career in farming machinery. America’s heritage farms were plowed by oxen and horses. Today’s modern farms have grown and so has their need for large, complex machines that are capable of working thousands of acres per season. In this field, you could be responsible for a wide range of duties, including:

• Loading and unloading equipment and goods.
• Making repairs on agricultural implements like irrigation systems and hay balers.
• Selling agricultural equipment, products, and systems in your assigned territory.
• Developing precision agriculture technologies.
• Welding together steel frameworks for buildings.

Positions in the sector of agribusiness run specialized farm equipment such as planters, sprayers, and harvesters, while farm equipment mechanics perform repairs and regular maintenance on large and expensive pieces of machinery, like tractors.

Educational requirements

These highly skilled technicians study mechanics, welding, or sales, usually with a 2- year program in agricultural or diesel mechanics. Sales staff will likely receive on-the-job training or transfer other sales skills to this industry.

Careers in farm machinery

Hands-on opportunities abound in this sector, including:

• Service and Maintenance Technician
• Heavy Equipment Operator
• Truck Driver
• Welder
• Sales Representative

Natural resource managers are fundamental to the structure and function of agricultural systems. With this farming career, employees are responsible for ensuring farms have healthy soil, clean water, and fresh air. Together, these elements provide the ecosystem needed to sustain human life through holistic farming and management concepts.

Common job duties

Those who work with natural resources are often responsible for:

• Collecting research samples from the field.
• Conducting experiments in a controlled laboratory setting.
• Developing alternative farming practices.
• Managing a farmland’s balance of natural resources for profitable agricultural operations.
• Sustainability planning and management of the Earth’s depleting natural resources.
• Making a field’s soil more suitable for a particular crop.
• Increasing the land’s ability to yield food.

In addition to nurturing the soil, natural resource agents test water sources. Water is the world’s most vital resource and we need it to grow food. Other jobs in this sector develop sustainable utilization processes, plan where to plant crops based on the quality of the soil and water, and monitor decisions focused on soil’s chemical and physical composition.

Educational requirements

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in environmental studies and earth sciences are common in this field. Graduates can find work as consultants or staff a range of companies and government agencies.

Jobs in natural resource management

A variety of scientists are dedicated to ensuring the continued safety of our planet’s ecology and improving public health. They include:

• Soil Conservation Technician
• Water Quality Specialist
• Botanist
• Habitat Restoration Manager
• Agricultural Civil Engineer

Agriculturalists responsibly manage our food production and limited natural resources. These careers in farming will continue to grow as long as people inhabit the planet.

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