Occupation Details

Agricultural technicians repair and maintain machinery, equipment and buildings for the agricultural, horticultural, forestry and landscape industries.   
  
They work with a range of machinery, from tractors and harvesters to equipment for tree felling, extracting and processing timber, or fixed equipment such as grain stores, forage silos, greenhouses, and automatic feeding and milking installations.   
  
In the agricultural manufacturing industry, agricultural engineering technicians help to design, develop and produce equipment. Where they work in a project team, they are usually led by an agricultural engineer. They prepare plans and designs, help with field trials to test new products, make modifications and repairs and record results.   
  
Technicians write technical manuals for operating and servicing the equipment and installations, and work in technical sales and servicing.   
  
Agricultural technicians may work for local machinery dealers. They supply farmers, local authorities and domestic customers with suitable machinery, as well as advice and after-sales service. In service departments, technicians repair and maintain a wide range of machinery. In stores Departments turn, order, control and Distribute spare parts.

The following is a list of the most commonly reported tasks and activities for this occupation

The following is a list of the most commonly reported skills used in this occupation.

You need to have technical ability and you must be good at solving problems. It is very important that you can diagnose faults and repair them quickly; you will need knowledge of mechanical and electrical systems, as well as hydraulics and electronics.   
  
This is an area where technology is advancing quickly, so you must be willing to learn and develop new knowledge to keep up. Technicians need the ability to read and interpret technical drawings and plans, and to explain them to others.   
  
You must be resourceful and able to act on your own initiative; you may have to repair machinery on a remote farm far away from your workshop.   
  
You also need good communication skills, to explain and demonstrate to farmers how machinery works and to discuss faults and repairs.

Courses are available to candidates who wish to enter this field at many of the Institutes of Technology and the Agricultural Colleges around the country. See the related CAO and PLC Course lists available on this page. 

The agricultural machinery sector comprises of many small companies which are owner managed, and a number of larger companies who develop integrated equipment to meet the demands for bigger machines. A list of Agricultural Machinery companies from Enterprise Ireland is available here.

Last Updated: October, 2014