Description
Operate and control agricultural equipment to support farm activities, including tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; and removing animal waste. May bale crops and operate stationary equipment for post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
- • Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust machine mechanisms.
- • Direct and monitor work crews during planting, weeding, and harvesting.
- • Load hoppers, containers, or conveyors using forklifts, augers, suction gates, shovels, or pitchforks.
- • Spray fertilizers or pesticides with hand sprayers to control pests, weeds, fungi, and diseases.
- • Operate towed equipment such as seed drills or manure spreaders to plant, fertilize, dust, and spray crops.
- • Drive trucks to haul crops, supplies, tools, or workers.
- • Walk beside or ride planting machines to insert plants at specified intervals.
- • Weigh crop-filled containers and record weights and identifying information.
- • Load and unload crops or materials manually or with conveyors, hand trucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.
- • Guide products on conveyors to regulate flow and remove diseased or rotten items.
- • Position boxes or attach bags at discharge points to catch products; remove and close full containers.
- • Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery; notify the supervisor of malfunctions.
- • Observe and listen to machinery during operation to detect problems.
- • Irrigate fields using portable pipes or ditch systems; maintain ditches, pipes, and pumps.
- • Mix specified materials or chemicals; load seeds, powders, or solutions into planters or sprayers.
- • Operate and tend agricultural equipment such as tractors, combines, and irrigation systems.
- • Attach implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors using bolts and hand tools.
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
