Agricultural Equipment Operators
US occupation · SOC 45-2091
Job titles people report: Baler Operator, Cutter Operator, Equipment Operator, Farm Equipment Operator, Hay Baler, Loader Operator, Packing Tractor Machine Operator, Rake Operator, Sprayer, Windrower Operator
Pay and outlook
- Median annual wage, May 2025
- $41,730
- Half earn more, half earn less
- Middle half earn
- $36,810 – $48,100
- 25th to 75th percentile
- People employed, May 2025
- 28,500
- Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
- Projected change, 2025–35
- +8.6%
- Growing at twice the all-jobs rate or more (7%+)
- Openings a year (projected)
- 10,100
- New jobs plus replacing people who leave
- Typical education to enter
- No formal educational credential
- BLS
- All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
- Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
- Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.
What the work involves
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.
Main tasks
- 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.
Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter (BLS)
- No formal educational credential
- Training once hired: moderate-term on-the-job training
- O*NET Job Zone 1–2
- Little to some preparation
- Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Interests it suits
The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.
- Realistic: hands-on work with tools, machines, plants or animals
- Conventional: organising information, records and procedures
- Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
Fields of study that lead here
From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 1 programme to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.
Agriculture
- Agricultural Power Machinery Operation
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Agriculture at the Major step.
Where many students take agriculture
- Texas A&M University-College StationCollege Station, TX · 9% of degrees · 59,615 undergraduates
- Iowa State UniversityAmes, IA · 10% of degrees · 25,367 undergraduates
- Unity Environmental UniversityNew Gloucester, ME · 38% of degrees · 6,483 undergraduates
- North Carolina State University at RaleighRaleigh, NC · 9% of degrees · 27,371 undergraduates
- California Polytechnic State University-San Luis ObispoSan Luis Obispo, CA · 11% of degrees · 21,996 undergraduates
- Oklahoma State University-Main CampusStillwater, OK · 10% of degrees · 21,773 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Related careers
Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
$51,610 median · -5.7% projected
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
$52,800 median · -13.2% projected
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
$46,420 median · +1.5% projected
- Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation
$46,340 median · +3.9% projected
- Industrial Machinery Mechanics
$64,520 median · +17.8% projected
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
$59,850 median · +4.6% projected
Sources
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0
Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk