Farmhand Resumes & Guide

So, you’ve decided it’s time to hunt for a new (or your first) Farmhand role.
Good on you!
Checking out good examples of our Farmhand resume is crucial. 

Below, we will guide you through creating an interview-winning resume: How to Make a Resume Guideline for Farmhand Roles?

Farmhand Resume Examples

(Free sample downloads are at the bottom of this page)

Farmhand Resume Writing Guide

Resume Sections:

1. Contact information
2. Profile Summary
3. Work History 
4. Achievements
5. Education 
6. Skill Section
7. Certification & Licensing
8. Extras: Languages/Awards/Publications/Volunteering/hobbies

What to Highlight in a Farmhand Resume

Farmhands assist the farmer with the farm’s daily operations and feeding the farm’s livestock. They must perform physically demanding activities like sowing crops, feeding animals, weeding, cleaning animal waste pens, spraying chemical substances, operating milking machinery, cleaning livestock, and repairing farm machinery. Due to this job's physicality, your resume should always mention your physical ability, such as stamina, time management, teamwork, being able to follow instructions, and consistency.

1. Specify the type of industry you’re working in. Taking care of horses on an estate requires different skills to fruit picking or cattle ranching.

2. Highlight the nature of your role. What you do on the farm depends on your interest, skill, and physical ability. You may be proficient at work a forklift or working with large machinery like those used on a dairy farm. You may be skilled at picking, stacking, packing, and stocking produce. Some Farmhands specialize in a certain activity, while others are a jack of all trades. 

2. Specify where you’re allowed to work and if you’re looking for permanent or seasonal work. Check to see if you’re certified only to work in specific states or may be obliged to work with certain voltage levels of equipment and machinery, as well as supervising others in the case of Mega Farming operations.

4. Always include any special machinery you work with, such as forklifts, conveyor belts, load-bearers, industrial vacuums, tractors, plowing vehicles, or washing bay equipment.

5. If you’re knowledgeable about the recent ISO standards, include your safety experience levels. Also, give the regulatory compliance requirements for areas like FDA (Medical/Healthcare) or GMP for manufacturing and processing plants.

5. Clearly state if you are willing to work shifts. Most shifts are around 8 hours, but in the larger farming operations that go around the clock, shifts as long as 12 hours are common. 

Lastly, as stated above, your physical ability and fitness levels are essential. Therefore, it is a good idea to include how many pounds you can lift.  

1. Contact information

• First Name and Last Name
• Email
• Physical Address
• LinkedIn (optional)

2. Profile & Summary

What you want is a career summary that will leave the reader remembering your name. A well-written summary/objective will give you a higher chance of your resume being put in the YES pile. 

Keep in mind that recruiters have many resumes and not much time to read them all. Keep your career summary concise, not more than 4-6 lines. Your grammar and writing style should be perfect as recruiters will often make their initial choices on what is written in this section. 

It is crucial to make the job advert’s description your guideline when selecting what to showcase and which achievements are best used for the precise application requirements. 

You aim to provide hiring managers with a concise but informative glance into your years of experience, certifications, qualifications, proficiencies, and the most suitable interpersonal qualities that cover what they are searching for in an applicant.  

If you don’t have any/ all that much work experience, write a career objective instead. Write about your strengths, proficiencies, passions, and most importantly, your career ambitions and how you plan to add value to the team.  

You want the screening programs used by recruiters to pick your resume out. So, make sure to use the exact keywords used in the job ad when writing your career summary/ objective to make this happen. 

Examples

Summary example 1

“Proficient Farmhand in working machinery to perform numerous farm tasks, utilizing seeder and planter to plant seeds in plowed lands, utilizing spreader and spraying fertilizer over plants, using pesticides over crops to prevent pest damage losses, harvesting crops when they are mature.  Highly skilled in animal care, including feeding and tracing animal movements, upkeep of farm equipment, and operating farm equipment for irrigation purposes.“

Summary example 2

“Enthusiastic, reliable, and hard-working Farm Hand/ Laborer. Quick learner. Flexible in complex situations. Prefers being busy and learning new skills. Looking for a challenging environmental position inspires me to progress my skills and capabilities, share my passions with others, and work together with others.“

Summary example 3

“Practical, goal-oriented, hard-working, driven, productive Senior Farm Hand with broad experience of 9 years in agricultural practices and processes. Strengths include organizational skills, a solid work ethic, being dependable, problem-solving, observant and job completion timeously, and organized. Looking for a job at XYZ Farm as a seasonal worker.“

Summary example 4

“Diligent and goal-orientated Farm Hand can break down intricate problems and manage numerous tasks at once. Suitable mechanical skills. Reliable self-starter with experience in customer service. Valuable with farm machine operation and upkeep.“

3. Employment History & Examples

Any recruiter will expect to read about certain foundation skills in a candidate’s resume. Sometimes they will change, depending on the role they play on the farm.  

For a more solid and detailed explanation regarding your experience and proficiencies, Ranch Owners and Farm Managers want to read about your precise responsibilities, skills, and job description. Be very specific in this section.   

The guys hiring often look at your experience section first. This is where you want to catch their eye with a direct and detailed description, using bullet points to show them that you are an exceptional fit for the position they need to be filled. The job advert is your guideline when choosing which tasks, duties, and responsibilities you must focus on when grabbing their attention. 

Write this section in a reverse-chronological format. Show where you’ve worked, duration of each period, and at least 4-6 main duties per role.

You’re free to detail your experience a bit more if you’ve been in the industry for a while. 

If you’re just out of Agricultural School, provide your high school leadership positions, any applicable courses such as first-aid, any training or memberships, and working at nurseries, for example, will highlight your passion for agriculture to the people looking to hire.  

Examples:

Farmhand Supervisor at Black Steed Estates

(Feb 2014 – Dec 2021)

Part of a 20 member team responsible for attending to all parts of animal care, including food and water supplies, medication, and bandaging on a 1000 hectare ranch.

• Maintaining a barn of 15 yearlings and foaling around 22 mares during foaling season.
• Operating heavy machinery, delivering any required products to and from locations.
• Accountable for: product harvesting, cashier duties, instructing proper product harvesting to customers, farm property maintenance, designating farm property ready for harvest.

Farmhand at Valencia

(Feb 2011 – Jan 2014)

Sole function is to operate tractors, self-propelled machinery, and tractor-drawn machinery to harrow, plow, and fertilize the soil or plant, cultivate, spraying, and harvest crops.

• Performing fieldwork from tilling the ground in the spring, bailing hay in the summer, harvesting in the fall.
• Proficient at following instructions, endurance, hard-working, continuous skills improvement.
• Driving wheat trucks if a relief truck driver was required during harvest.
• Built fencing when required and maintaining the animal shelters on the property.

Job Description Samples

Below are examples of Farmhand job descriptions to help you with this part. Use these examples as a guide and inspiration to write your own tailored descriptions that will fit perfectly into the job opening requirements as depicted in the job ad.

Samples:

• Operate tractors, self-propelled machinery, and tractor-drawn machinery to harrow, plow, and fertilize the soil or plant, cultivate, spraying, and harvest crops.
• Repair and maintain farm vehicles, mechanical equipment, and implements.
• Identify plants, weeds, and pests, determining the selection and application of fertilizers and pesticides.

• Direct and monitor the work of seasonal and casual help during planting and harvesting.
• Participate in inspecting, sorting, grading, storage, and post-harvest treatment of crops.
• Load agricultural products into trucks, driving trucks to markets, or storing facilities.

• Mow lawns, trim lawn edges, trees, bushes, weeding flower beds and gardens, and perform spring and fall clean up, fence repairs, etc.
• Move equipment/ livestock from one location to another, either manually or utilizing trucks/ trailers.
• Maintain, repair, and overhaul farm machinery/ vehicles like tractors, sprayers, and harvesters.

• Reassemble equipment and machines after repairing, testing operation, and making adjustments as required.
• Handle horses, assist pregnant mares with birth during foaling season, clean stalls, groom and bathe horses when necessary.
• Build fences when required and the up keeping of the animal shelters on the property.
• Sanitize and clean milking equipment, transfer milk for use in products.

4. Accomplishments

It’s super tempting to copy and paste your list of responsibilities as they are in your job description under your experience section. Please don’t do this! You will shoot yourself in the foot. You won’t stand out from the rest of your competition, and then what? No interview! 

The whole point is to figure out what makes you different from the rest. What did you accomplish in the last job that makes you most proud? 

Communicate these with action-packed statements that make the recruiter want to read more.

This section highlights what you achieved in how you contributed to your career. It would help if you quantified your achievements with numeric values. This highlights your accomplishments and also gives your credentials a boost. 

Now, rack your brain and list all the achievements you’re most proud of, and don’t be shy about this. The whole point is to impress. Once you have them down, communicate them in concise, punchy sentences WITH NUMBERS TO BACK THEM UP.

Use bullet points and maybe a different font/ bold keywords for maximizing impact to highlight your accomplishment statement.

Examples:

Flat, Simple Duty:

• Prepared cows for milking and upheld a clean and sanitary environment.

Accomplishment Statement:

• Prepared 108 cows for milking while upholding a clean and sanitary environment of 5700 square meters.

Quantifying Your Resume

This section helps to prove what you have achieved in your previous roles by giving the recruiters objective measurements to work with. Quantifying your achievements highlights them and makes your resume more exciting to read! 

If you can answer questions like “how much?” or “how many?” then add those numbers. For example:

• How many stables/ paddocks did you clean daily?
• How many animals do you look after?
• What was the average time quota of produce you had to pick on the daily? 
• What was the average length of fencing (in meters) mended/ fixed by you in the last month?

Below are examples of what not to do:

These are DULL and DREARY

• Looked after and maintained chicken coops, which included daily retrieval of eggs. 
• Integrated safety procedures into all shifts so that the workers were protected from accidents.
• Developed, implemented, and observed processes to boost long-term farm success and increasing profit margins. 

This is what you should do:

Now, these will get attention:

• Looked after and maintained 13 chicken coops, which included an average retrieval of around 50 eggs.
• Integrated safety procedures into all shifts so that the 57 workers were protected from accidents.
• Developed, implemented, and observed processes to boost long-term farm success and increasing profit margins by 37%.
  

5. Education

This section is critical, even if you didn’t obtain a degree. This job usually relies on your practical experience and on-the-job training. Therefore, if you have hands-on work experience, definitely include that information in this education section.

Any certificates related to working on a farm, such as botany, equipment, or animal husbandry, will look fantastic in this section.

In today’s world, Farmhands have access to career development training. 

Naturally, if you DO have a formal degree from a university/ vocational school, list them right here. Below are examples of how to lay your education section out: 

You will need the When What and Where regarding your qualifications/ certifications/ courses/ workshops you’ve done. 

Completed Secondary and Post School Education must be listed as follows: 

You’ll begin with the starting and end dates, followed by the full qualification name, the institution's full name, and the city or abbreviated state name. If you did a course, the same rules apply as above, but only give the course's completion date along with the other info. Provide your high school info in the same way but only give this info if you have less than three years’ experience. 

Some examples:

2001- 2004 Associate Degree in Farm and Ranch Management, University of Tennessee.

2014- 2015 Farm School Diploma, Agricultural College Los Texas, TX.

2010- 2015 High School Diploma, Ridgefield High School, Ridgefield, NJ.

6. Skills

This can be a critical section. Many recruiters now use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to narrow down the best candidate resumes while ignoring the underqualified ones. 

This program works by monitoring the use of specific keywords used in your resume. In other words, if your resume doesn’t have the correct keywords, the ATS will ignore your application, regardless of your experience. 

So, make sure to use the same words in your resume as is used in the job advert. 

The farming industry requires certain technical skills, it’s true, but recruiters are also interested in other skills, like your soft skills. These types of skills indicate if you’ll be a good fit for the farm, personality-wise. 

The technical skills will show if you have sufficient experience, knowledge. Include these in your summary/ profile, and your accomplishment statements.

Technical Skills Examples

Safe machinery operations	Equipment	Problem Resolution
Physical stamina	Heavy lifting	Operations management
Staff hiring	Livestock management	Fluent in English and Spanish
Working night shift	Ranch marketing	Cleaning Stables

Soft Skill Examples

Social Orientation	Communication Skills	Punctual
Trustworthy	Detail- Orientated	Task- Driven
Safety Conscious	Accountable	Enthusiastic

7. Qualifications & Certifications associated with Farmhands

CD License	High School Diploma	Certified Forklift Operator
Farm Equipment Technician Course	GED Diploma	Diploma in Agriculture Management
Workshop in Mega Farming Fundamentals	CPR	Certificate in ISO

Optional Extras for Farmhand Resumes

Recruiters like to use this section to determine if you’d be a good fit on the farm. It shows the type of person you are when you’re not in the work environment. 

This section helps to show your passions and interests:

• Sports and recreational activities
• Volunteering work
• Extra-Mural activities during University life
• Awards and accolades
• Added education and training not related to farm work
• Leadership positions
  

Farmhand Resume Example Downloads

Professional Information on Farmhands Sectors: 

Farming, Agriculture
Career Type:  Skilled, Semi-Skilled, Professional

Person type:  Worker, Driver, Handler, Sorter, Mover, Groomer
Education levels: From High School Diploma to Post School Education
Salary indication: $ 13.25 per hour (Indeed)

Labor market: ‘Growth of 1% between 2019 – 2029 (BLS)

Organizations: Farms, Ranches, Agriculture Facilities