Land-based machinery operator

• Driving and tending tractor-drawn or self-propelled special-purpose farm machinery to plough land and sow, fertilize, cultivate and harvest crops
• Driving and tending tractor-drawn or self-propelled special-purpose forestry machinery to clear land, plant, harvest and carry trees and timber or perform other forestry operations
• Preparing and positioning plant for operation
• Adjusting speed, height and depth of implements
• Operating plant to hold, lift and cut trees
• Operating attachments to lift, swing, release and sort trees and logs, and operating auxiliary plant such as chipping machines and log splitting machines
• Feeding felled trees into processors to strip limbs and cut into logs and loading logs onto stockpiles and into trucks
• Servicing machinery and performing minor repairs

Fewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.

Pay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,000 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,100 (Denmark), before tax.

Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.

Among plant and machine operators, and assemblers in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · Eurostat

Upper secondary or vocational training in crop and livestock production is the usual route.

Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.

AI could help with only small parts of the tasks.

Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for mobile farm and forestry plant operators. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).