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Farm worker vs farmer

The differences between farm workers and farmers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a farmer has an average salary of $30,845, which is higher than the $26,598 average annual salary of a farm worker.

The top three skills for a farm worker include harvest, mowing and farm equipment. The most important skills for a farmer are beef cattle, farm work, and farm machinery.

Farm worker vs farmer overview

Farm WorkerFarmer
Yearly salary$26,598$30,845
Hourly rate$12.79$14.83
Growth rate1%-3%
Number of jobs25,368500
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 36%Bachelor's Degree, 40%
Average age4048
Years of experience--

What does a farm worker do?

A farmworker is responsible for applying fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides to crops and livestock. You will operate agricultural machinery under the direction of a rancher, farmer, or an agricultural manager. Your duties will typically include harvesting and inspecting crops manually, irrigating farm soil and maintaining pipes, pumps, d ditches, and feeding livestock. As a farmworker, you will operate milking machinery and other farm machinery such as plows and tractors, maintain farm buildings, and trim hedges. You are also expected to mend walls and fences and clear drainage ditches.

What does a farmer do?

A farmer, also known as an agriculturer, is a person deeply involved in agriculture, raises living organisms for food, produces organic matter, or unprocessed materials for human and animal consumption. There are several types of farmers from those who raise animals, grow crops, and other livestock. At most, due to the advanced economy, most of them are farm owners, but there are still some who work as laborers on land owned by others. Besides having a general knowledge of planting, breeding, and harvesting, they should also need to be familiar with mechanics in order to help them keep their equipment working and running.

Farm worker vs farmer salary

Farm workers and farmers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Farm WorkerFarmer
Average salary$26,598$30,845
Salary rangeBetween $21,000 And $33,000Between $13,000 And $71,000
Highest paying CityGreenville, MSKearny, NJ
Highest paying stateNorth DakotaNew Jersey
Best paying companyFAT CATS CAFEL'Oréal
Best paying industryManufacturingManufacturing

Differences between farm worker and farmer education

There are a few differences between a farm worker and a farmer in terms of educational background:

Farm WorkerFarmer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 36%Bachelor's Degree, 40%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common college--

Farm worker vs farmer demographics

Here are the differences between farm workers' and farmers' demographics:

Farm WorkerFarmer
Average age4048
Gender ratioMale, 72.6% Female, 27.4%Male, 73.6% Female, 26.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.1% Unknown, 3.0% Hispanic or Latino, 25.2% Asian, 1.8% White, 64.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%Black or African American, 1.1% Unknown, 2.9% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 1.5% White, 86.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage3%4%

Differences between farm worker and farmer duties and responsibilities

Farm worker example responsibilities.

  • General farm operations including health checks and care of calves, manage cleanliness of barns, milking
  • Manage regular routines of dairy calf sector, developing skill in feeding, housing, sanitation, parasite and disease control.
  • Care for domestic farm animals, lawn mowing, lifting supplies and feed, general grounds work.
  • Adhere to farm procedures for newborn calf management.
  • Serve as vacation relief foreman and semi trailer spotter.
  • Farm aid carrry trees to customers cars, drive a bobcat.
  • Show more

Farmer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and conduct the baling, hauling, advertising, and selling of 2000 straw square bales a year from 2002-2006.
  • Work on dairy farm and do everything from milking cows to working on equipment.
  • Can operate excellent with or without GPS
  • Work on hydroponic production of tomato crops.
  • Discuss and help with farm growth CSA expansion.
  • bush hogging baling hay planting seed cow castration and immunization
  • Show more

Farm worker vs farmer skills

Common farm worker skills
  • Harvest, 25%
  • Mowing, 11%
  • Farm Equipment, 10%
  • Farm Machinery, 7%
  • Farm Work, 5%
  • Beef Cattle, 3%
Common farmer skills
  • Beef Cattle, 13%
  • Farm Work, 8%
  • Farm Machinery, 6%
  • Milking, 6%
  • Mowing, 6%
  • Farm Animals, 5%

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