By Charles Hice

Top 15 In Demand Ag Jobs

• Ag Retail Sales – This job considers all people engaged in sales of products to farmers or from farmers. Products may include seed, feed, equipment, crop nutrition, crop protection, pesticides, livestock and much more. These professions are heavily sales focused, and as with most sales based professions, the better report and reputation you build with your clientele, the more successful you can become. Entry level work may be a bit on the hard side, but you can grow into something much more.

• Agribusiness Operations Managers – These are managers that run an agribusiness aside from direct farming. This would basically be the next position up from a retail sales position. These positions will best be suited with experience in the field as well as a related degree.

• Custom Application & Pest Control – Crops are continuously under threat from pests and insects. No crop is immune to nature’s fury in this regard. Farmers need to be considerate of specific pests and diseases based on specific times of year. However, managing these threats, especially with applied pesticides, is no easy task. And in some states, such as California, you must be a licensed or certified professional to even give advice on such matters. This means by law in some places, farmers must rely on these businesses. This is a very detailed profession, in which understanding and utilizing safety regulations if of the highest priority.

• Farm Manager – Though it’s thought that the number of family farms is declining, the overall size of the farm has doubled in over 30 years. However, the median age of a farmer keeps increasing, and their own children keep leaving. This places a lot of work on the shoulders of people who just can’t keep up as well as they used to. These farms are more and more turning to a corporate style of business model, and hiring out property management and harvesting companies to work and manage their land for them. This position is hugely in demand right now, and is a great opportunity for some.

• Agricultural Finance & Accounting –   Even the banking and accounting industry have a role to play in the farm. Whether it is the book keeping of the farm itself or acting as a bank officer handling farm land accounts, there is plenty to know and do in this field. Taxes, accounting, and a asset loans are a huge part of any businesses, especially farming.

• Ag Technicians – These career fields usually have a focus in a specific aspect, process, or procedure related to farming or the agribusiness. They often refer to someone in the science and research areas of ag, and are commonly used by agencies such as the USDA. Your day may be filled with data analysis, collection, and experimentation.

• Agronomist – This person is a crops expert. And many of the field’s mentions already can be tired to this job as well. Agronomists are knowledgeable in the leading crop science of the time, including methodology to best grow crops. These experts are routinely sought out by seed companies, fertilizer and chemical companies, as well as food processors that work with growers to develop quality crops.

• Food Scientist – This is another profession that has been in great demand in recent decades. These people find ways to improve foods in a variety of ways, specifically food products for sale. They usually will be seen on the latter end of the process, developing better ways to package, maintain, or safely transport food.

• Food Safety Inspector – This is a field that people have been talking about a lot lately. Especially in recent decades, due to certain health scares and problems. Food safety is a serious business, and can often put an entire operation, farm, or business on its knees or to a complete halt. There are a variety of these professionals that are hired, for a variety of positions within different parts of the farm to fork line. You can find yourself working as a safety and health inspector in the field growing a crop, on the line processing the crop, in the facility holding the crop for transportation, or at the final destination in the grocery store or retail business. Food safety is paramount in the farming and Ag industry, and it is taken extremely seriously, and can result in massive fines for even the slightest of infractions. That is why these professionals are in demand. Compliance is key in safety of all kinds.

• Veterinarian or Vet Tech – Farming isn’t all about crops. Animals and livestock are a massive part of agriculture. According to the USDA, the health of an animal is directly connected to the health to human and environmental health. This career will not only have a focus on mending animals, but it will focus on animal health and safety overall. Livestock is another well regulated and focused on industry that creates and encouraged atmosphere for various industries to work together and at the base of that will be the Veterinarians and Veterinarian Technologists that assist in health and safe livestock.

• Farm Workers & Laborers – This is absolutely essential to the Ag industry. You have probably heard many different things surrounding this particular group of needed labor. This is one of the most diverse categories in all jobs available on the farm. Laborers perform tasks related to irrigation, inspection, packaging, packing and loading, planting and harvesting, maintaining equipment, routine animal care just to name a few. This group may have some of the more unforgiving jobs, but they still make a very decent living.

• Truck Drivers – Yes, truck drivers are a highly in demand Ag profession, especially come harvest time. These are the people that transport our food from town to town, state to state, and country to country in some cases. Without truck drivers, the entire economy, especially Ag, would halt to a stop. If there was ever a profession that Ag depended on, it would be truck driving.

• Equipment Operators – This profession continues to grow, as more and more farms and processing plants use machines (automated or not) in order to plant, harvest, bale, convey, spread, mow, shred, package, and process any and every imaginable food product you can think of according to its needs. There need to always be people in charge of the machine so to speak, and growth in this profession or an ancillary repair profession has consistently been on the rise.

• Mechanics, Welders, and other Trade Professionals: Pretty much the unsung heroes on the farm, these professionals get the job back going again, when the farmer is otherwise broke down and losing daylight. These are the people that truly keep farm or business plant oiled and operating. There are so many types of trade professionals to be, I can’t name them all. But each trade has a specific place on the farm and the need continues to grow. I would recommend looking into some of these trade professions.

• Ag and Natural Resources Communications – If there is a true conservationist out there, it is the farmer. With an interest combined in Ag as well as Natural Resources, this career field can have you working in journalism, advertising, and public relations to help bridge the gap between the Ag industry and some parts of the world that just might now be as informed or knowledgeable about what it really means to be part of Ag.

  What jobs do you think should be on this list?