Best degree programs for Agricultural Equipment Operators, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 9 schools train Agricultural Equipment Operators. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $41,730 median wage, 28,500 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 9 schools train agricultural equipment operators, graduating 124 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Agricultural Power Machinery Operation. The job pays a median of $41,730 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About agricultural equipment operators
Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agricultural Power Machinery Operationmain feeder CIP 01.0204 | 124 | 100.0% | 9 | $54,138 | $18,912 |
Top 9 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
What agricultural equipment operators earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.
- Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.
- Spray fertilizer or pesticide solutions to control insects, fungus and weed growth, and diseases, using hand sprayers.
- Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.
- Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.
- Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.
- Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.
- Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.
Skills
- Active Listening3.0
- Critical Thinking2.9
- Monitoring2.8
- Speaking2.8
- Active Learning2.3
- Reading Comprehension2.3
- Writing2.1
- Mathematics1.9
Knowledge areas
- English Language3.4
- Mechanical2.9
- Public Safety and Security2.8
- Mathematics2.8
- Transportation2.7
- Production and Processing2.7
Abilities
- Control Precision3.9
- Multilimb Coordination3.9
- Near Vision3.6
- Depth Perception3.4
- Far Vision3.4
- Problem Sensitivity3.4
Core activities
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or Equipment4.4
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials4.3
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships4.2
- Controlling Machines and Processes4.2
- Handling and Moving Objects4.2
- Processing Information4.1
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Agricultural Equipment Operator
Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0- Typical entry education
- No formal educational credential
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Agricultural Equipment Operators1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 01.0204Agricultural Power Machinery Operation
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become an Agricultural Equipment Operator?+
No formal educational credential is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Agricultural Power Machinery Operation, which awarded 124 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming an Agricultural Equipment Operator?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Agricultural Mechanization. Together they graduate about 124 people a year.
How much do agricultural equipment operators earn?+
The median is $41,730 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $33,500 at the 10th percentile to $58,650 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for agricultural equipment operators growing?+
BLS projects a +7.7% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 10,500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
9 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do agricultural equipment operators work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Rake Operator, Loader Operator, Equipment Operator, Farm Equipment Operator among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 45-2091.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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