Career
Agricultural equipment operators
Run the machines that plant and harvest crops.
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job 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.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Troubleshooting, Quality Control Analysis.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $41,730 a year and 10,100 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Agricultural Power Machinery OperationCIP 01.0204
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse$35,660 · -2.4%
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers$41,220 · -13.1%
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$51,610 · -5.7%
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$45,760 · +1.5%
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$52,800 · -13.2%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.