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Career Details : Agricultural Equipment Operators

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Description

Drive and control farm equipment to till soil and to plant, cultivate, and harvest crops. 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.

Experience

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience may be helpful in these occupations, but usually is not needed. For example, a drywall installer might benefit from experience installing drywall, but an inexperienced person could still learn to be an installer with little difficulty.

Education

These occupations usually require a high school diploma and may require some vocational training or job-related course work. In some cases, an associate's or bachelor's degree could be needed.

Training

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees.

Tasks

  • Loads and unloads crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, hand truck, forklift, or transfer auger.
  • Adjusts, repairs, lubricates, and services farm machinery, and notifies supervisor or appropriate personnel when machinery malfunctions.
  • Drives truck, or tractor with trailer attached, alongside crew loading crop or adjacent to harvesting machine.
  • Drives truck to haul harvested crops, supplies, tools, or farm workers.
  • Loads hoppers, containers, or conveyor to feed machine with products, using suction gates, shovel, or pitchfork.
  • Oversees work crew engaged in planting, weeding, or harvesting activities.
  • Positions boxes or attaches bags at discharge end of machinery to catch products, places lids on boxes, and closes sacks.
  • Drives tractor with implements to plow, plant, cultivate, or harvest crops and to move trailers for crop harvest.
  • Discards diseased or rotting product, and guides product on conveyor to regulate flow through machine.
  • Attaches farm implements, such as plow, disc, sprayer, or harvester, to tractor, using bolts and mechanic's hand tools.
  • Mixes specified materials or chemicals and dumps solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
  • Hand picks fruit, such as apples, oranges, or strawberries.
  • Thins, hoes, weeds, or prunes row crops, fruit trees, or vines, using hand implements.
  • Manipulates controls to set, activate, and regulate mechanisms on machinery such as self-propelled machines, conveyors, separators, cleaners, and dryers.
  • Walks beside or rides on planting machine while inserting plants in planter mechanism at specified intervals.
  • Observes and listens to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunction and removes obstruction to avoid damage to product or machinery.
  • Irrigates soil, using portable pipe or ditch system, and maintains ditch or pipe and pumps.
  • Sprays fertilizer or pesticide solutions, using hand sprayer, to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases.
  • Weighs crop-filled containers and records weights and other identifying information.

    Related Careers

    Important Abilities

    General Work Activities

    Important Skills

    Frequent Work Context

    • Consequence of Error
    • Degree of Automation
    • Outdoors
    • Hazardous Equipment
    • Hazardous Equipment

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