What does a dairy farmer do?
Dairy farmer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real dairy farmer resumes:
- Manage regular routines of dairy calf sector, developing skill in feeding, housing, sanitation, parasite and disease control.
- Hoof trimming responsibilities include all dry cow maintenance trims, treating lame cows and diagnosing hoof health issues.
- Demonstrate milking process and equipment operation to all workers.
- Milk goats, set up pipes for pasteurizer, clean pipes, rake barn, feed goats
- Herd the dairy cattle to pasture for grazing.
- Clean cattle lots with bobcat and dump truck.
- Milk goats, help feed baby goats, care for newborn goats
- Lead milker, take care of sick cows shots for breeding run heavy equipment
- Assist in hauling of pasture / forage grasses from the pasture areas to the feeding areas.
- Clean stalls, pens, and equipment, using disinfectant solutions, brushes, shovels or water hoses.
- Milk, operate while owner are gone, run equipment, hay season, calves, all the farm duties
- Work on a weekly basis on hoof health by trimming and treating harry warts, corns, and other hoof illnesses.
- Decrease costs of leafy green production through specialize hydroponic system.
- Work with nutritionist to regulate high quality feed intake and mix TMR to standards.
Dairy farmer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 32% of Dairy Farmers are proficient in Milking, Dairy Farm, and Dairy Cattle. They’re also known for soft skills such as Dexterity, Listening skills, and Physical strength.
We break down the percentage of Dairy Farmers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Milking, 32%
Field Work directly with the cattle; milking, feeding, cleaning, handling, medicate and all the livestock practices.
- Dairy Farm, 12%
Attended and actively participated in training on an international dairy farm.
- Dairy Cattle, 11%
Reviewed, monitored and followed up on production cost of farm and production as well as nutritional management of dairy cattle.
- Farm Machinery, 10%
Dig and plant seeds with farm machinery.
- Milk Cows, 8%
Milk cows and other farm things.
- Calf, 5%
Implemented vaccination and calf identification program.
Most dairy farmers use their skills in "milking," "dairy farm," and "dairy cattle" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential dairy farmer responsibilities here:
Dexterity. One of the key soft skills for a dairy farmer to have is dexterity. You can see how this relates to what dairy farmers do because "agricultural workers need excellent hand-eye coordination to harvest crops and operate farm machinery." Additionally, a dairy farmer resume shows how dairy farmers use dexterity: "farm management decisions, labor accomplishments producing a high quality product skills used hands on skills. "
Listening skills. Another essential skill to perform dairy farmer duties is listening skills. Dairy farmers responsibilities require that "agricultural workers must listen carefully to ensure that they understand instructions from farmers and other agricultural managers and supervisors." Dairy farmers also use listening skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "milk cows and feed calves maintain clean pens and milking parlor listen to directions from"
Physical strength. This is an important skill for dairy farmers to perform their duties. For an example of how dairy farmer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "agricultural workers must be strong enough to lift heavy objects, including tools and crops." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a dairy farmer: "assisted in physical renovation of farm buildings. ".
Mechanical skills. A big part of what dairy farmers do relies on "mechanical skills." You can see how essential it is to dairy farmer responsibilities because "agricultural workers must be able to operate complex farm machinery." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical dairy farmer tasks: "general maintenance of farm apparatus.skills usedmechanical engineering, argomy, knowledge of heavy equipment and tractor trailers. "
The three companies that hire the most dairy farmers are:
- Kroger5 dairy farmers jobs
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Compare different dairy farmers
Dairy farmer vs. Field hand
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, dairy farmer responsibilities require skills like "milking," "dairy farm," "dairy cattle," and "farm machinery." Meanwhile a typical field hand has skills in areas such as "frac tanks," "oilfield equipment," "manual labor," and "routine maintenance." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Field hands tend to reach similar levels of education than dairy farmers. In fact, field hands are 2.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Dairy farmer vs. Cowboy
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that dairy farmer responsibilities requires skills like "milking," "dairy farm," "dairy cattle," and "farm machinery." But a cowboy might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "customer service," "food preparation," "cdl," and "manage inventory."
In general, cowboys achieve similar levels of education than dairy farmers. They're 2.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Dairy farmer vs. Barn hand
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a dairy farmer is likely to be skilled in "dairy farm," "dairy cattle," "farm machinery," and "milk cows," while a typical barn hand is skilled in "clean stalls," "horse stalls," "tack," and "general upkeep."
When it comes to education, barn hands tend to earn similar degree levels compared to dairy farmers. In fact, they're 3.9% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Dairy farmer vs. Herdsman
Types of dairy farmer
Updated January 8, 2025
