Duties and tasks

• Monitoring market activity and conditions, determining kinds and amounts of stock to produce, and planning and coordinating production accordingly
• Promoting and marketing products, arranging the sale, purchase and transportation of livestock, produce and supplies and maintaining and evaluating records of farm activities and transactions
• Performing duties related to livestock reproduction, such as breeding, artificial insemination, and helping with animal births
• Training and supervising workers in animal care procedures, maintenance duties, and health and safety precautions and hiring and discharging workers and contractors
• Maintaining and cleaning farm buildings, machinery, equipment, and structures
• Slaughtering and skinning animals and preparing them for market
• Herding livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, sheds, vehicles, or other enclosures
• Monitoring and examining animals to detect illness, injury, or disease, and to check physical condition such as rate of weight gain
• Grooming, marking, clipping, trimming, drenching and/or castrating animals and shearing coats to collect hair or wool
• Cultivating pastures and providing and monitoring fodder and water supplies to maintain appropriate nutritional levels and condition of livestock
• Mixing feed, additives, and medicines in prescribed portions and distributing or hand-feeding to animals for consumption
• Storing and carrying out some processing of animal and dairy produce
• Milking animals by hand or using milking machines