The Cool Sheep Careers
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER
ALSO CALLED
- Mechanical engineer
- Civil engineer
- Hydraulic engineer
- Hydrologist
- Soil engineer
WHAT’S THE JOB ABOUT?
- Solving engineering and technical problems relating to agriculture
Sustainable agricultural production, management of natural resources, efficient use of machinery and equipment, production systems, post-production handling, storage and transport
Surveying existing literature, proposing hypotheses, designing experiments to test hypotheses under both laboratory and field conditions, analysing results, writing and presenting reports
- Developing and applying new technologies
Minimum tillage, computer and satellite applications, controlled environments, packaging solutions, resource use efficiencies
Agricultural engineers often specialise in one of the following fields:
- HYDROLOGY– The distribution, conservation and use of water.
- Planning, supervising the building of and managing irrigation, drainage, flood and water control systems and effluent schemes
- MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT– Designing agricultural machinery components and equipment
- Developing new instrumentation such as sensing, measuring and recording devices
- Designing, building and testing machinery and equipment to ensure adequate performance
- PROPERTY STRUCTURES – Planning and supervising the building of farm and related structures such as animal housing and handling facilities, greenhouses, aquaculture sheds and processing and storage facilities
- SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION – Designing soil conservation works, repairing sites of degradation, controlling water retention, water logging and soil salinity
- Providing advice on water quality and pollution issues
- Carrying out environmental impact studies and monitoring construction sites for environmental problems
- Designing and supervising environmental and land reclamation projects and the construction of water storage facilities
- Assessing irrigation and drainage requirements of soils
- ALTERNATIVE ENERGY PRODUCTION – Designing and installing solar, wind and water energy supply systems and biofuels
- CROP PRODUCTION – Supervising ground preparation, sowing and harvesting
- Determining crop water requirements and designing and evaluating irrigation systems for efficient production
- Examining soil compaction effects of controlled traffic systems
- POST-HARVEST OPERATIONS – Supervising processing, packaging and transport of produce
- Managing cleaning, grading, milling, mixing and processing of grains and fibres
- Sorting of fruits and vegetables based on colour and size
- Supply chain and “cool’’ chain analysis of refrigerated produce
WORK CONDITIONS
- Agricultural engineers work for government departments, universities, research organisations, large companies and private consulting firms.
- Careers may be in research, extension and advisory roles, teaching, management, administration, production and product development.
- Work may take place in a laboratory and/or office, testing facilities, factories, outdoors with field trials and animal work and in classrooms or lecture theatres.
- The job can be theoretical but mostly requires practical and applied scientific research.
- The results of research are published and presented in reports and scientific papers.
- There may be involvement in the stages of product development and marketing.
- Depending on the workplace, the workday and hours may be structured or may be flexible with irregular, long hours depending on the activity.
- Agricultural engineers may work on their own, as part of a team or monitor the work of others.
- Opportunities exist to travel both within Australia and overseas to work and attend conferences.
EXPERIENCE AND RELATED TRAINING
- To be employed as an agricultural engineer you must have a degree in a relevant field of study.
- Initial specialisation occurs during undergraduate studies.
- Further specialisation usually occurs through postgraduate studies.
Career path |
Training Requirements
|
- Graduate agricultural engineer
You undertake broad training in a range of the above fields with some specialisation. |
TERTIARY EDUCATION
With a major in Agricultural Engineering
(or equivalent) |
- Postgraduate agricultural engineer
You specialise in one of the above fields with course work and/or research. |
TERTIARY EDUCATION
(or equivalent) |
You undertake new research in a field related to agriculture. |
TERTIARY EDUCATION
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
in a field related to agricultural engineering |
Career paths in private industry, research organisations, the public sector and universities will depend on experience, published research and service. |
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- Farm manager
- Farmer
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- Company representative
- Extension officer
- Agriculture teacher
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