---
title: "Agricultural Equipment Operator"
description: "Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-equipment-operator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Agricultural Equipment Operator

**Category:** Farming, Fishing, and Forestry · **SOC code:** 45-2091 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 45-2091.00

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.

Also advertised as: Baler Operator; Cutter Operator; Equipment Operator; Farm Equipment Operator; Hay Baler; Loader Operator; Packing Tractor Machine Operator; Rake Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $41,730 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $20.06/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $33,500 to $58,650, with the middle half between $36,810 and $48,100
- **Total US employment:** 28,500
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +8.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 10,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 70/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 28,500 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $33,500 |
| 25th | $36,810 |
| 50th (median) | $41,730 |
| 75th | $48,100 |
| 90th | $58,650 |
| Mean (average) | $43,710 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MT | $58,770 | $62,095 | 130 |
| LA | $58,520 | $66,344 | 270 |
| NY | $50,020 | $46,349 | Not published by BLS |
| DE | $49,910 | $50,006 | 40 |
| MA | $49,150 | $46,474 | 40 |
| MN | $48,520 | $49,198 | 900 |
| ND | $48,080 | $54,047 | 430 |
| SD | $48,060 | $54,252 | 240 |
| VA | $47,890 | $47,367 | 120 |
| IA | $47,220 | $53,805 | 1,530 |
| OH | $47,220 | $50,898 | 600 |
| PA | $47,100 | $48,272 | 390 |
| WI | $47,100 | $50,056 | 830 |
| NE | $46,670 | $51,796 | 1,090 |
| ME | $46,490 | $47,903 | 60 |

25 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 40 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-equipment-operator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/agricultural-equipment-operator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 66,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 72,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,700 jobs, or +8.6%. Much faster than average: 8.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 10,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 56.8% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 19.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 14.4% |
| Some College Courses | 9.5% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 0.1% |

## What the work involves

- Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.
- Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.
- Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.
- Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.
- Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.
- 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.
- Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operation and Control — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Control Precision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Far Vision — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Depth Perception — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.67 |
| I — Investigative | 2.50 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.34 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| S — Social | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 88.6 |
| ISTP | 78.8 |
| ESTJ | 71.6 |
| ISFJ | 71.5 |
| INTJ | 67.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Farmworker and Laborer, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/farmworker-and-laborer-crop-nursery-and-greenhouse) — median $35,660
- [Machine Feeder and Offbearer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/machine-feeder-and-offbearer) — median $41,220
- [Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/separating-filtering-clarifying-precipitating-and-still-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $51,610
- [Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/extruding-forming-pressing-and-compacting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $45,760
- [Milling and Planing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/milling-and-planing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $52,800
- [Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crushing-grinding-and-polishing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $48,540
- [Conveyor Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/conveyor-operator-and-tender) — median $42,420
- [Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-truck-and-tractor-operator) — median $46,420
- [Pesticide Handler, Sprayer, and Applicator, Vegetation](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pesticide-handler-sprayer-and-applicator-vegetation) — median $46,340
- [Laborer and Freight, Stock, and Material Mover, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laborer-and-freight-stock-and-material-mover-hand) — median $40,240

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank 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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/agricultural-equipment-operator