Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers · code 6121
Livestock and dairy producers
Livestock and dairy producers plan, organize and perform farming operations to breed and raise domesticated animals (excluding poultry), such as cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, horses and camels, for the production of meat, milk and other dairy products, skins and wool or for use as working, sporting or recreational animals, for sale or delivery to wholesale buyers, marketing organizations or at markets. Tasks include - (a) monitoring market activity and conditions, determining kinds and amounts of stock to produce, and planning and coordinating production accordingly; (b) cultivating pastures and providing and monitoring fodder and water supplies to maintain appropriate nutritional levels and condition of livestock; (c) monitoring and examining animals to detect illness, injury or disease, and to check physical condition such as rate of weight gain; (d) grooming, marking, clipping, trimming, drenching and/or castrating animals, and shearing coats to collect hair or wool; (e) herding livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, sheds, vehicles or other enclosures; (f) milking animals by hand or using milking machines; (g) mixing feed, additives and medicines in prescribed portions and distributing or hand-feeding to animals for consumption; (h) performing duties related to livestock reproduction, such as breeding, artificial insemination and helping with animal births; (i) maintaining and cleaning farm buildings, machinery, equipment and structures; (j) slaughtering and skinning animals and preparing them for market; (k) storing and carrying out some processing of animal and dairy produce; (l) 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; (m) training and supervising workers in animal care procedures, maintenance duties and health and safety precautions, and hiring and discharging workers and contractors. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Cattle farmer - Dairy farmer - Dog breeder - Drover - Goat farmer - Horse breeder - Shearer - Sheep farmer - Shepherd - Stockman/woman Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Agricultural production manager - 1311 - Ranch manager - 1311 Note Workers who produce a combination of domestic livestock and other animals such as poultry, insects and non-domesticated animals should be classified according to their predominant activity. Those who produce and store hay and other fodder for later consumption, primarily by livestock for which they are responsible, are classified in Unit Group 6121: Livestock and Dairy Producers.
None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 96 of 427 for holding up against AI.
Also known as
- cattle breeder
- equine yard manager
- horse breeder
- shepherd
- sheep breeder
- pig breeder
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
against AI Not Exposed
AI could take on 17 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17 = 83
That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.
out of 100
From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs
and cramped
finger skill 41 · hand skill 39.3 · cramped spaces 32.2 · averaged
Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work
Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.
estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
This number is probably too high
This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 60.9 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.
Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.
The tasks behind the score
The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.
The task AI could do most of scores 43, while the average is 17. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.
- 43
Monitoring market activity and conditions, determining kinds and amounts of stock to produce, planning and coordinating production accordingly
Low - 35
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
Low - 21.5
Training and supervising workers in animal care procedures, maintenance duties, and health and safety precautions, and hiring and discharging workers and contractors.
Very Low - 16.5
Monitoring and examining animals to detect illness, injury or disease, and to check physical condition such as rate of weight gain
Very Low - 14
Performing duties related to livestock reproduction, such as breeding, artificial insemination and helping with animal births
Very Low - 13.8
Cultivating pastures and providing and monitoring fodder and water supplies to maintain appropriate nutritional levels and condition of livestock
Very Low - 13.5
Mixing feed, additives, and medicines in prescribed portions and distributing or hand feeding to animals for consumption
Very Low - 12.8
Maintaining and cleaning farm buildings, machinery, equipment and structures
Very Low - 12.3
Storing and carrying out some processing of animal and dairy produce
Very Low - 12
Milking animals by hand or using milking machines
Very Low - 10.8
Herding livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, sheds, vehicles, or other enclosures
Very Low - 8.5
Slaughtering and skinning animals and preparing them for market
Very Low - 7.5
Grooming, marking, clipping, trimming, drenching and/or castrating animals and shearing coats to collect hair or wool
Very Low
13 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting
Helped, or replaced?
The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.
2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
- AI helps you
- 59
- AI does it for you
- 27
Helping wins by 32 points.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 1213, 3611, 3632, 3633
Compared with similar jobs
There are 18 jobs in the “Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers” group, averaging 83.7. This one is below that.
- Hunters and trappers 91
- Subsistence fishers, hunters, trapper… 88.2
- Forestry and related workers 88.1
- Subsistence mixed crop and livestock … 88.1
- Subsistence crop farmers 87.4
- Subsistence livestock farmers 87.3
- Tree and shrub crop growers 82.9
- Mixed crop growers 82.8
- Inland and coastal waters fishery wor… 82.5
- Field crop and vegetable growers 82.4
- Deep-sea fishery workers 82.4
- Gardeners, horticultural and nursery … 81.6
- Poultry producers 81.1
- Mixed crop and animal producers 81
- Animal producers not elsewhere classi… 80
- Apiarists and sericulturists 77.8
- Aquaculture workers 77.5