There are so many careers involved with Agriculture, unlike the common stereotype of everyone becoming a farmer with a degree in Agriculture. Farming is a big part of an agricultural degree, however there is so much more involved than meets the eye.

In Agriculture, you can get jobs within sales, management, managing accounts payable, doing scouting, or taking soil samples. The pay is generally very good in this field of work, depending on experience.

One can also become a technician in weed research, to assist with developing new ways to eliminate weeds more safely and effectively. You may also work in the field of seed and crop research, as a technician of researching the best ways to grow crops faster and more effectively.

Agricultural companies may also hire you on the basis of being a farm safety hazard inspector. Here, you will visit farms to ensure proper safety procedures are put in place, understood, and reinforced. One may also obtain work in Poultry Feed Sales, Dairy Feed Sales, Hatchery Operations Coordinator, Broiler Breeder Farm Assistant, and Broiler Breeder Farm Manager. Of course the salaries range here, but usually pay quite competitively.

Crop farming is a very popular career in the field of agriculture. Crop farming typically involves the extensive cultivation of vegetation and plants to yield feed for farm animals, food for humans, or fiber for the production of medicine or other industrial ingredients. Jobs within crop farming can involve research associates for a particular crop, such as cotton or corn, for example. Roles here may include everything from field operations, collection of data, and field scouting to repairing the necessary vehicles and farm equipment. Crop farming may also involve roles such as a testing operations manager, where you may be in charge of organizing, planting, measuring, harvesting and recording information on new experimental crop varieties and advanced breeding.

Within the dairy farming sector of Agriculture, there are also a wide variety of available roles. It isn’t like people usually assume, where all you’ll be doing is herding cattle or milking them. Roles can include animal nutrition experts, where you research and implement proper diet for cows.Within that field of animal nutrition comes sales consultants, and management jobs as well. One may also be a dairy herdsman manager, in which you will closely supervise the employees milking, herding, and caring for cattle. In this position, you will also work closely with veterinarians as you would be responsible for scheduling vaccinations, monitoring the cattle’s health, and when they get sick or injured you would be responsible for monitoring their treatments.

With a certificate or degree in agriculture you could also become a plant manager, in which you will be in charge of an entire plant which manufactures anything related to agriculture. The possibilities are endless, and as you can see, there’s so much more to do than planting and harvesting crops and milking cows!

In recent years, an increasing amount of media and consumer attention has been paid to not just what kinds of food we eat, but where the food we eat comes from and how it is produced. The result has been the soaring popularity of organic and free range foods. But what do these terms mean, what’s the difference between them, and which should you prefer?

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The organic label refers to certain production standards: restriction on the use of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides and rejection of the routine use of antibiotics and growth hormones for livestock. In the U.S., foods must be “certified” organic which means that food producers are held to certain standards of the National Organic Program—part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Many people prefer organic foods out of health or environmental concerns because organic farms produce less potentially hazardous waste and foods are thought to be lower in pesticides and growth hormones which may impact human health.

Free range means something very different than organic. It refers to the raising of livestock in which animals are allowed to roam more freely. This often is contrasted to “factory-farming” in which animals are housed in small confined enclosures and rarely allowed to walk, run, exercise and sometimes even to lay down. Because free range refers to how livestock are treated, only meats, eggs, and milk—not fruits or vegetables—can be free range.

Consumers tend to be interested in free range foods, not just because of environmental or health benefits, but also out of concern for the humane treatment of the animals. Unfortunately there is not much oversight on this worldwise, as seen by the USDA about requirements for free range meats, dairy, and eggs. You can see here, for instance, a visual comparison between “factory-farmed” and free range chicken enclosures.

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Both the organic and free range industries are currently in high demand and consumers are likely to become even more interested in the future. Job opportunities are likely to increase in the coming decades as more farmers, meat-packers, and local food vendors will be needed to keep up with ever increasing consumer demand.