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.

AI Resistance Index 52 of 99

In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 52% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it moderate), and US jobs are projected to change by -3.2% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on physical dexterity.

AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.

Median pay (2025): $36,670
Job growth to 2035: -3.2%
Openings a year: 26,600
People doing it (2025): 202,000
Usual route in: No formal credential, then short on-the-job training

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Where people already use AI for this work

Care for plants or animals
Prepare mixtures or solutions
Research biological or ecological phenomena

From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).

Work AI rarely helps with

Operate agricultural or forestry equipment
Examine people or animals to assess health conditions or physical characteristics
Maintain tools or equipment

What the work looks like

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.

From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.

What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects

Fewer of these jobs, as the mechanization of agricultural operations is expected to reduce demand for these workers, with a corresponding increase in demand for agricultural equipment operators.
Fewer of these jobs, as the expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) and IoT connected devices utilized in agricultural operations reduce the demand for manual work previously completed by farmworkers, farm, ranch, and aquacultural animals employees.

Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook

Agricultural workers, all otherHuman edge, growing, Index 83, +3.8%
Log graders and scalersHuman edge, steady, Index 58, -2.2%
Brickmasons and blockmasonsHuman edge, steady, Index 57, +1.1%
Packaging and filling machine operators and tendersHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +4.1%

Also known as: Cowboy, Herdsman, Livestock Handler, Ranch Hand, Farm Hand, Farrowing Worker, Milking Worker, Rancher.

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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.