Careers in Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Directly supervise and coordinate the activities of agricultural, forestry, aquacultural, and related workers.

Requires Vocational Training or a Diploma

Agricultural Inspectors

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Inspect agricultural commodities, processing equipment, and facilities, and fish and logging operations, to ensure compliance with regulations and laws governing health, quality, and safety.

Requires a Matric Certificate

Animal Breeders

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Select and breed animals according to their genealogy, characteristics, and offspring. May require knowledge of artificial insemination techniques and equipment use. May involve keeping records on heats, birth intervals, or pedigree.

Requires a Matric Certificate

Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Grade, sort, or classify unprocessed food and other agricultural products by size, weight, color, or condition.

May require a Matric Certificate

Agricultural Equipment Operators

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

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.

May require a Matric Certificate

Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Manually plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables, fruits, nuts, horticultural specialties, and field crops. Use hand tools, such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives. Duties may include tilling soil and applying fertilizers; transplanting, weeding, thinning, or pruning crops; applying pesticides; or cleaning, grading, sorting, packing, and loading harvested products. May construct trellises, repair fences and farm buildings, or participate in irrigation activities.

May require a Matric Certificate

Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Attend to live farm, ranch, open range or aquacultural animals that may include cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses and other equines, poultry, rabbits, finfish, shellfish, and bees. Attend to animals produced for animal products, such as meat, fur, skins, feathers, eggs, milk, and honey. Duties may include feeding, watering, herding, grazing, milking, castrating, branding, de-beaking, weighing, catching, and loading animals. May maintain records on animals; examine animals to detect diseases and injuries; assist in birth deliveries; and administer medications, vaccinations, or insecticides as appropriate. May clean and maintain animal housing areas. Includes workers who shear wool from sheep and collect eggs in hatcheries.

Requires a Matric Certificate

Agricultural Workers, All Other

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

All agricultural workers not listed separately.

No requirement is specified

Fishing and Hunting Workers

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Hunt, trap, catch, or gather wild animals or aquatic animals and plants. May use nets, traps, or other equipment. May haul catch onto ship or other vessel.

May require a Matric Certificate

Forest and Conservation Workers

Farming, Fishing, and Forestry

Under supervision, perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect areas such as forests, forested areas, woodlands, wetlands, and rangelands through such activities as raising and transporting seedlings; combating insects, pests, and diseases harmful to plant life; and building structures to control water, erosion, and leaching of soil. Includes forester aides, seedling pullers, tree planters, and gatherers of nontimber forestry products such as pine straw.

Requires a Matric Certificate