# Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals

> Attend to live farm, ranch, open range or aquacultural animals that may include cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses and other equines, poultry, rabbits, finfish, shellfish, and bees. Attend to animals produced for animal products, such as meat, fur, skins, feathers, eggs, milk, and honey. Duties may include feeding, watering, herding, grazing, milking, castrating, branding, de-beaking, weighing, catching, and loading animals. May maintain records on animals; examine animals to detect diseases and injuries; assist in birth deliveries; and administer medications, vaccinations, or insecticides as appropriate. May clean and maintain animal housing areas. Includes workers who shear wool from sheep and collect eggs in hatcheries.

- **SOC code:** 45-2093.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-45-2093-00
- **Also known as:** Cowboy, Herdsman, Livestock Handler, Ranch Hand, Farm Hand, Farrowing Worker, Milking Worker, Rancher
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Feed and water livestock and monitor food and water supplies.
- Herd livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, trucks, or other enclosures.
- Examine animals to detect illness, injury, or disease, and to check physical characteristics, such as rate of weight gain.
- Provide medical treatment, such as administering medications and vaccinations, or arrange for veterinarians to provide more extensive treatment.
- Mix feed, additives, and medicines in prescribed portions.
- Shift animals between grazing areas to ensure that they have sufficient access to food.
- Mark livestock to identify ownership and grade, using brands, tags, paint, or tattoos.
- Protect herds from predators, using trained dogs.
- Order food for animals, and arrange for its delivery.
- Perform duties related to livestock reproduction, such as breeding animals within appropriate timeframes, performing artificial inseminations, and helping with animal births.
- Patrol grazing lands on horseback or using all-terrain vehicles.
- Drive trucks, tractors, and other equipment to distribute feed to animals.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Control Precision _(ability)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(ability)_
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Monitoring _(essential_skill)_
- Trunk Strength _(ability)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Production and Processing _(knowledge)_
- Biology _(knowledge)_
- Administration and Management _(knowledge)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Biology _(Specialized Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Finger Dexterity _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Word _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- BCL Landview Systems WinCrop
- Farm Works Software Trac
- Lancaster DHIA PCDART
- Valley Agricultural Software DairyCOMP 305
- Web browser software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 24th percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 14th percentile (Low) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 17th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 48th percentile (Moderate) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -5.0% growth (Declining); 31.2k annual openings; 224.6k → 213.4k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $36,150; 35,420 employed.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-45-2093-00_