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Farm worker vs grower

The differences between farm workers and growers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a grower has an average salary of $36,332, 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 grower are harvest, cleanliness, and pesticide applications.

Farm worker vs grower overview

Farm WorkerGrower
Yearly salary$26,598$36,332
Hourly rate$12.79$17.47
Growth rate1%1%
Number of jobs25,368188
Job satisfaction-3
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 36%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Average age4040
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 grower do?

Growers monitor crop development and substandard plant removal to take care of quality standards. They maintain records of growing techniques and products to be used for review to identify trends and to forecast future space needs. Growers maintain the company's horticultural product by growing and caring to produce retail sales. They apply technical procedures, timing, and metering devices that control frequency, and amount and type of nutrient applications such as regulating the humidity, ventilation, and temperature and light. Additionally, they perform the dispensing of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides.

Farm worker vs grower salary

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

Farm WorkerGrower
Average salary$26,598$36,332
Salary rangeBetween $21,000 And $33,000Between $21,000 And $61,000
Highest paying CityGreenville, MSAnchorage, AK
Highest paying stateNorth DakotaAlaska
Best paying companyFAT CATS CAFECornell University
Best paying industryManufacturingManufacturing

Differences between farm worker and grower education

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

Farm WorkerGrower
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 36%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Most common majorBusinessPlant Sciences
Most common college--

Farm worker vs grower demographics

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

Farm WorkerGrower
Average age4040
Gender ratioMale, 72.6% Female, 27.4%Male, 63.8% Female, 36.2%
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, 4.1% Unknown, 3.0% Hispanic or Latino, 22.9% Asian, 1.8% White, 67.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage3%3%

Differences between farm worker and grower 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.
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Grower example responsibilities.

  • Manage controlled environments and greenhouses for research on corn, soy, and wheat plants.
  • Provide back-up for lab crew with assisting in PCR, DNA extraction, seed plating and stocking solutions.
  • Work on plants, clone, up pot, feed, water.
  • Propagate cannabis plants from seed and clone.
  • Supervise the safety and cleanliness of the work environment.
  • Create hanging baskets and planters for sales and special orders.
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Farm worker vs grower skills

Common farm worker skills
  • Harvest, 25%
  • Mowing, 11%
  • Farm Equipment, 10%
  • Farm Machinery, 7%
  • Farm Work, 5%
  • Beef Cattle, 3%
Common grower skills
  • Harvest, 25%
  • Cleanliness, 12%
  • Pesticide Applications, 7%
  • Marijuana, 6%
  • Greenhouse Environment, 6%
  • IPM, 6%

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