Agricultural engineers primarily focus on four main areas: product design, process engineering, systems engineering, and resource engineering. Product design engineers develop machinery and mechanical structures, such as systems for energy-efficient tilling, planting, harvesting, and grain storage and retrieval. Agricultural process engineers work primarily with crop and food processing; they test for more efficient ways to package, transport, and store grain, livestock, and ocean products. Agricultural systems engineers are concerned with a wide array of agricultural practices including irrigation, electrical, microprocessor controls, and safety. Finally, agricultural resource engineers are concerned with most environmental aspects of farming, including water quality, and soil and groundwater management.
Related Professions
- Agricultural Scientist
- Manufacturing Engineer
- Biological Engineer
- Safety Engineer
- Forest Engineer
- Food and Process Engineer
- Mechanical Engineer
- Electrical Engineer
Agricultural engineers must hold at least a bachelor of science degree from an accredited four-year college or university. According to the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 57 college and university degree programs offer a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering. Like other agricultural degree areas, there is a heavy concentration of agricultural engineering programs in the mid-western farming states; however, each state in the union has at least one agricultural engineering program.
In a typical curriculum, the first two years are spent in the study of basic sciences, such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics, introductory engineering, and liberal arts courses. The remaining two years are devoted to specialized engineering courses. A master's degree is required for many teaching and research assignments and also for many management positions. In addition, many agricultural engineers are obtaining degrees in business management (MBAs) to advance into mid-level and upper-level management positions.
Professional Certification
Some states may require agricultural engineers to obtain the Professional Engineer (PE) certification. Generally, the registration laws for professional engineers require graduation from an accredited engineering curriculum, followed by approximately four years of engineering experience, and the successful completion of a written exam. The requirements for each state may vary. For more information on state requirements and accredited curriculum programs, contact the National Society of Professional Engineers or the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, which is listed at the end of this chapter.
Agricultural engineers work in laboratories, offices, at design tables, or con-ducting experiments on farms, greenhouses, and fields. They investigate farm operations and systems of work, survey land use, and test new equipment and machinery in order to improve agricultural output. Many agricultural engineers work at manufacturing facilities developing and testing new farm machinery. They may spend a substantial amount of time conducting research using computers to design and test projects and writing reports. These engineers will also work extensively with other engineers because complex projects often require the services of many engineers with each working with a small part of the job. After several years of work experience, some agricultural engineers are promoted to managerial and executive positions. In this role, they work in an office environment to oversee daily operations and chart company goals.
Many engineers work a standard 40-hour workweek. At times, deadlines or design standards may bring extra work pressure to the job. When this happens, engineers may work long hours and experience considerable stress.
Employment Statistics And Major Employers
More than 15,000 agricultural engineers are employed in the United States and many thousand more in Canada. The employment outlook for agricultural engineers is expected to be better than average due to several factors: the growing mechanization of the agricultural field, the need to produce more food for a growing population, the demand for the conservation of resources such as water and soil, and the drop in the number of engineering graduates during the past decade.
The majority of agricultural engineers are employed in agribusiness by seed and pesticide manufacturers, manufacturers of farm equipment and heavy machinery, private design and research companies, corporate and family farmers, and as private consultants. The federal government employs agricultural engineers for soil and water management projects, and as cooperative extension agents, mostly in the Department of Agriculture. State departments of agriculture also hire a number of engineers. Agricultural engineers also teach and conduct research in colleges and universities across the nation. A master's degree or Ph.D. is usually required for employment in academia.
Salary Statistics
According to the College Placement Council, the average starting salary for agricultural engineering graduates in September 1992 was $31,464, while graduates with a master's degree earned $35,618. According to a 1991 salary study by the Environmental Careers Organization, junior engineers earn, on average, $44,207, those in management earn an average of $49,583, while senior engineers typically earn more than $70,000. Starting salaries for agricultural engineers employed by the federal government are lower than in private industry, but they obtain parity after several years of employment due to more incremental pay raises.
According to the American Association of University Professors, the average starting salary for an engineering professor in 1992 was $45,753, while the average salary for a tenured professor was $70,177.
Sources Of Further Information
- American Society of Agricultural Engineers 2950 Niles Rd. St. Joseph, MI 49085-9659
- Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology 345 East 47th St. New York, NY 10017
- National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying P.O. Box 1868 Clemson, SC 29633
- National Society of Professional Engineers 1420 King St. Alexandria, VA 22314
- American Society for Engineering Education 11 Dupont Circle Suite 200 Washington, DC 20036
- Society for Women Engineers United Engineering Center 345 East 47th St. New York, NY 10017
