What does a farm manager do?
Farm managers are professionals who manage a staff of farm professionals to handle various administrative tasks and monitor crops and domestic animals within a farm. These managers are required to work in growing cultivated plants that are harvested for food, clothing, and fuel while ensuring that the crops are properly stored and packaged for purchase. They must visit the different divisions on the farm to inspect crops and livestock while performing tests on the soil and water. Farm managers must also ensure that seeds, fertilizers, and other supplies are regularly restocked.
Farm manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real farm manager resumes:
- Manage product quality to guarantee compliance with quality policies, procedures and USDA systems.
- Manage two milking facilities and work with heifer grower, crop manager, and building contractors.
- Lead farm tours/herb walks to share farm progress and seasonal nature-observations with CSA members and interest members of the community.
- Manage pedigree cattle farm by; overseeing breeding production and certify artificial insemination program.
- Manage CSA program and wholesale accounts and maintain working relationships with community organizations and retailers.
- Maintain and service farm equipment for functionality during harvest seasons.
- Utilize GPS technology to enhance overall performance and return.
- Set up and run stalls at farmer's markets.
- Certify farm chemical operator; heavy equipment operator, CDL truck license
- Develop policies and procedures for the facility to ensure ACA compliance.
- Maintain knowledge of applicable CMS regulations to ensure ACHC is meeting all accreditation requirements.
- Complete procedural checklists to ensure compliance and fill out require paperwork for any FDA products.
- Coordinate CALEA accreditation tasks to meet deadlines to assure an efficient workflow throughout the department.
- Adopt GPS technology assisting in decision making to ensure each dollar spend would return that dollar.
- Supervise and coordinate daily tasks of 5 team members for 20 barns with 16 -18 thousand pigs.
Farm manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 15% of Farm Managers are proficient in Harvest, Farm Equipment, and Safety Standards. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Initiative, and Mechanical skills.
We break down the percentage of Farm Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Harvest, 15%
Organized planting schedule; maintained harvest schedule; general equipment and inventory maintenance.
- Farm Equipment, 8%
Managed farm equipment to ensure optimal performance with routine maintenance.
- Safety Standards, 8%
Implement environmental, heath and safety standards while fully complying with environmental and heath safety regulations.
- Beef Cattle, 6%
Developed customer service and sales skills by raising beef cattle and selling them to local farmers for profit.
- Farm Operations, 5%
Executed farm operations according to the standard operation procedures and policies.
- Payroll, 5%
Used Microsoft word, excel and Windows 95 and 98software for maintaining Payroll records and generating picking slips.
"harvest," "farm equipment," and "safety standards" are among the most common skills that farm managers use at work. You can find even more farm manager responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a farm manager to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers monitor and assess the quality of their land or livestock." Additionally, a farm manager resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "organized and entered field data into greenstar's crop management. "
Initiative. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling farm manager duties is initiative. The role rewards competence in this skill because "many farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers are self-employed." According to a farm manager resume, here's how farm managers can utilize initiative in their job responsibilities: "lead day-to-day management: setting daily goals with and for staff--all contributing to larger strategic initiatives. "
Mechanical skills. This is an important skill for farm managers to perform their duties. For an example of how farm manager responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers operate complex machinery and occasionally perform routine maintenance." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a farm manager: "care of livestock, grounds keeping, property maintenance, mechanical repair of all farm equipment, crop planting/harvesting. ".
The three companies that hire the most farm managers are:
- Smithfield Foods5 farm managers jobs
- Hormel Foods4 farm managers jobs
- First Mid Bank & Trust2 farm managers jobs
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Compare different farm managers
Farm manager vs. Truck farmer
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a farm manager are more likely to require skills like "harvest," "safety standards," "beef cattle," and "farm operations." On the other hand, a job as a truck farmer requires skills like "cdl," "mechanical problems," "healthcare," and "research paper." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Truck farmers tend to reach lower levels of education than farm managers. In fact, truck farmers are 5.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Farm manager vs. Farm owner operator
Each career also uses different skills, according to real farm manager resumes. While farm manager responsibilities can utilize skills like "harvest," "safety standards," "beef cattle," and "payroll," farm owner operators use skills like "business plan," "cash flow," "livestock farm," and "business transactions."
In general, farm owner operators achieve similar levels of education than farm managers. They're 3.0% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 1.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Farm manager vs. Assistant farm operations manager
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a farm manager is likely to be skilled in "farm equipment," "safety standards," "beef cattle," and "farm operations," while a typical assistant farm operations manager is skilled in "maintenance equipment," "facilities maintenance," "dot," and "mig."
Assistant farm operations managers typically earn lower educational levels compared to farm managers. Specifically, they're 5.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Farm manager vs. Agriculture manager
Even though a few skill sets overlap between farm managers and agriculture managers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a farm manager might have more use for skills like "safety standards," "beef cattle," "payroll," and "farm management." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of agriculture managers require skills like "community outreach," "r," "ehs," and "hazardous materials. "
In general, agriculture managers hold similar degree levels compared to farm managers. Agriculture managers are 1.9% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of farm manager
Updated January 8, 2025
