Job Profile:      Agricultural Equipment Operator


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.

45-2091
Job Information
   
   
37,740 46,100 51,170

Select Tasks
Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions. Irrigate soil, using portable pipes or ditch systems, and maintain ditches or pipes and pumps. Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment. Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery. Direct and monitor the activities of work crews engaged in planting, weeding, or harvesting activities.
Load hoppers, containers, or conveyors to feed machines with products, using forklifts, transfer augers, suction gates, shovels, or pitchforks. Spray fertilizer or pesticide solutions to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases, using hand sprayers. Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.
Operate towed machines such as seed drills or manure spreaders to plant, fertilize, dust, and spray crops. Drive trucks to haul crops, supplies, tools, or farm workers. Walk beside or ride on planting machines while inserting plants in planter mechanisms at specified intervals.
Weigh crop-filled containers, and record weights and other identifying information. Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers. Guide products on conveyors to regulate flow through machines, and to discard diseased or rotten products.
Position boxes or attach bags at discharge ends of machinery to catch products, removing and closing full containers.





Select Abilities
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity). The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem. The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways. The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem. The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures. The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns. The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object. The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you. The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources). The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects. The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects. The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion. The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part. The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears. The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists. The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects. The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object. The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing. The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath. The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs. The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion. The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). The ability to see details at a distance. The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
The ability to see under low light conditions. The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead. The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
The ability to see objects in the presence of glare or bright lighting. The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness. The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated. The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.




Tools Used
3-point sprayers Air carts Air drill seeders
Air reels Air seeders All terrain vehicle ATV discs
All terrain vehicle ATV harrows All terrain vehicle ATV manure spreaders All terrain vehicle ATV plows
All terrain vehicle ATV post hole diggers All terrain vehicle ATV rakes All terrain vehicle ATV seeders
All terrain vehicle ATV sprayers All terrain vehicles ATV Auger movers
Auger wagons Backhoes Batch grain dryers
Bed shapers Bedding hippers Bucket elevators
Cargo trucks Chaff spreaders Chisel disks
Chisel plows Combine cylinders Combine draper headers
Combine grain headers Combine header transports Combine headers
Compact tractors Compost turners Continuous flow grain dryers
Coulter disks Coulter drills Coulter rippers
Crop dividers Crop lifters Crop shredders
Disk rippers Ditchers Dry bulk storage tanks
Farm tractors Feed conveyors Feed grinders
Feed mixer wagons Fertilizer blenders Fertilizer spreaders
Field cultivators Field rollers Flat-ended shovels
Flotation sprayers Forage blowers Forage boxes
Forage harvesters Forage tractors Forage wagons
Forklifts Garlic harvesters Grain augers
Grain bin aeration fans Grain combines Grain drills
Grain heaters Grain pumps Grain vacuums
Grain wagons Granular applicators Grass drills
Grass seeders Gravity wagons Hammermills
Harrow baskets Hay bale accumulators Hay bale compressors
Hay bale conveyors Hay bale elevators Hay bale feeders
Hay bale forks Hay bale loaders Hay bale movers
Hay bale shredders Hay bale spears Hay bale stackers
Hay bale trailers Hay bale unrollers Hay bale wrappers
Hay balers Hay conditioners Hay tedders
Haybines Header carriers Horizontal feed mixers
Land finishers Land levelers Land planes
Land rollers Land scrapers Lime spreaders
Liquid ferilizer applicators Liquid storage tanks Litter spreaders
Manure augers Manure chopper pumps Manure injection systems
Manure scrapers Manure separators Manure spreaders
Manure storage tanks Min-till cultivators Min-till drills
Min-till planters Mist blowers Mower conditioners
Novariant AutoFarm RTK AutoSteer Nurse tanks Offset disks
Pasture renovators Peanut digger inverters Peanut digger shakers
Peanut diggers Peanut dryers Peanut dump carts
Peanut harvesters Plows Portable sprayers
Post drivers Post hole diggers Power winches
Rock windrowers Roller packers Rotary hay rakes
Rotary hoes Rotary tillers Row crop cultivators
Seed bins Seed conveyors Seed drills
Seed dryers Seed hoppers Seed mixers
Seed scales Seed strippers Seed tenders
Seed vacuums Self-propelled sprayers Shavings spreaders
Silage baggers Silage bins Silage boxes
Silage distributors Silage feeders Silage mills
Silage wagons Silage wrappers Silo spreaders
Skid sprayers Skid steer hay bale spears Skid steer loaders
Skid steer post drivers Skid steer post hole diggers Skid steer post pullers
Skid steer rock grapples Skid steer rotary tillers Skid steer tree cutters
Soybean combine harvesters Sprayer booms Sprayer chassis
Straw and chaff spreaders Stump grinders Subcompact tractors
Subsoilers Swath turners Tandem disks
Telehandlers Threshers Tomato harvesters
Tower grain dryers Track tractors Tractor guidance systems
Transfer augers Utility vehicles V hay rakes
Weed wipes Wheel loaders Windrow inverters
Windrowers

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