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Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers · code 6121

Livestock and dairy producers

AI can forecast milk prices. It can't calve a heifer at 3am.

AI barely touches eleven of the thirteen tasks, including shearing, drenching and getting animals ready for market. Watching prices and arranging sales are mostly out of its reach too.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

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.

  • 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.

83 / 100

Strongly holds up against AI

Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

96 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 13 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 17 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 17 = 83.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy

It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 61 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Livestock and dairy producers 83

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Planning production around market prices.
  • Marketing, sales and paperwork.
  • Health monitoring with sensors.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Calving, breeding and caring for animals.
  • Judging an animal's condition.
  • Running the farm through weather and disease.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Milking robots and automated feeding.
  • Emissions and welfare reporting.
  • Selling direct to customers.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

27 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 59 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Higher

61 how hands-on

Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.

So could a robot do the physical part?

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.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 38 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

61 How
hands-on
38 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, less fiddly work

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 41 · hand skill 39.3 · cramped spaces 32.2 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4

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 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 43, against an average of 17. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 43

    Monitoring market activity and conditions, determining kinds and amounts of stock to produce, planning and coordinating production accordingly

    Low
  2. 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
  3. 22

    Training and supervising workers in animal care procedures, maintenance duties, and health and safety precautions, and hiring and discharging workers and contractors.

    Very Low
  4. 17

    Monitoring and examining animals to detect illness, injury or disease, and to check physical condition such as rate of weight gain

    Very Low
  5. 14

    Performing duties related to livestock reproduction, such as breeding, artificial insemination and helping with animal births

    Very Low
  6. 14

    Cultivating pastures and providing and monitoring fodder and water supplies to maintain appropriate nutritional levels and condition of livestock

    Very Low
  7. 14

    Mixing feed, additives, and medicines in prescribed portions and distributing or hand feeding to animals for consumption

    Very Low
  8. 13

    Maintaining and cleaning farm buildings, machinery, equipment and structures

    Very Low
  9. 12

    Storing and carrying out some processing of animal and dairy produce

    Very Low
  10. 12

    Milking animals by hand or using milking machines

    Very Low
  11. 11

    Herding livestock to pastures for grazing or to scales, sheds, vehicles, or other enclosures

    Very Low
  12. 9

    Slaughtering and skinning animals and preparing them for market

    Very Low
  13. 8

    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 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
59
AI does it for you
27

Sidekick wins, by 32 points.

How good a match is this?

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 1213, 3611, 3632, 3633

So, should livestock and dairy farmers be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

Parts of the business side are changing. Planning production and marketing are the most exposed tasks, both Low; animal care, breeding and milking rate Very Low. Sensors, milking robots and farm software are spreading, but the stock still needs a farmer.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 18 jobs in the “Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers” family, averaging 84. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →