What do farmers do

Then, they sow seeds or plant seedlings. When the crops are growing, farmers must water or rely on rainfall , weed and kill crop pests. Once the crops are mature, the farmer will harvest them. Farmers need resources to grow food. They need many different types of resources. In the area of cash crop farming - a farmer will raise crops to market for consumption, medical use, animal food production, and the growing herbal industry. A farmer in this field will be responsible for the planting, fertilization, and harvesting of the crops, as well as transport to the proper production elevators for sale at harvest.

Cash crop farmers will need a strong working knowledge of planting times, harvesting times, and weather patterns in order to gain a good footing in their field.

Some of these crops may be processed to be sold back to farmers for future use. These crops are purchased by seed companies who treat the crops and process them, then sell them to farmers to use the next season as seeds to plant their fields.

Other examples of such a circular sale include crops that are purchased to produce animal feed, which is then later sold to farmers in the animal husbandry and livestock production fields.

In animal husbandry - farmers concentrate on providing healthy, hearty livestock for later processing for consumption. Farmers often specialize in one type of animal in this field, carefully breeding the livestock to produce the best quality offspring each season.

Offspring are then raised to take the place of the current breeding stock over time, with the current breeding stock sold after a period of time. Animal husbandry requires a strong knowledge of blood lines and species types, as well as the best possible out-crossings of those types to provide the best results in breeding.

Also, some offspring may be sold to other farms who specialize in livestock production to be raised for a specific production purpose. A veal farm is one example of a farm involved in specialized livestock production that may purchase offspring from an animal husbandry farm for a specific production purpose. As the calves must be placed on a special diet, these farms are responsible for holding the livestock to that diet, monitoring their health, and selling them to production facilities at the proper age, weight, and size to produce the necessary product requirements for their field.

Animal production farmers will need to know the diets, illnesses, treatments, and growth rates necessary for their specialized areas. Many farmers are born into a family farming business. From the time they are children they gain their knowledge through observation and hands-on experience.

The modernization and new complexities of the farming industry, however, have increased the need for farmers and ranchers to also receive formal training. This is especially true for those who are responsible for making financial and operational decisions. Aspiring farmers who choose to supplement their hands-on experience with formal training or education will commonly add one or more of the following timelines to their learning track:.

Farmers rank highly among careers. Overall they rank in the 73rd percentile of careers for satisfaction scores. Please note that this number is derived from the data we have collected from our Sokanu members only. Farmers also have to water the fields, fertilize, and free the land of weeds that are bad for the crops. What do the livestock farmers do on their farms?

Well, some of them might breed and rais their animals while others concentrate on buying animals at a young age and then raise them for sale, slaughter, or show. Livestock includes food animals such as cattle, sheep, and pigs.

Some exotic animals used for pleasure are included, such as horses and bison as well. What is important to mention is that each type of animal requires certain expertise, knowledge, and management. For example, dairy farmers must know how to milk their animals and handle the milk.

On the other hand, animals like horses require certain training. The animals on the farm also need routine vaccinations or other care, so the farmers need to manage it or perform as well. There are more and more modernized farms and ranches that use modern equipment and tools to enhance productivity.

That being said, every farmer must know how to operate a wide variety of farming machinery. Some of the farming machinery used almost every day are tractors, trucks, plows, milking machines, harvesters, and much more. This has become essential equipment for almost every farmer. On the other hand, some farms still use draft animals rather than tractors, and farmers must know how to drive, handle, and care for the team as well.

There are also smaller tools and equipment that is being used daily on every farm, such as pumps, garden trillers, and chain saws. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. Used under the CC BY 4. RethinkOldSchool, Inc.

The career video is in the public domain from the U. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Free Career Tests. Skip to content A farmer or rancher operate farms that produce livestock or crops such as vegetables. How to Become a Farmer or Rancher Farmers and ranchers typically have a high school diploma and obtain their skills through work experience.

Job Description of a Farmer or Rancher Farmers and ranchers oversee and contribute to every step of the ranging process and crop production to include herding, planting, harvesting, and fertilizing.

The basics of systems thinking and understand how the different aspects of a system influence one another and how a system itself is affected by its context. The relevance of crop and livestock productivity for environmental sustainability.