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Agricultural Technician Career Assessment

Field plots, soil samples, and a pickup truck — the two-year door into ag science

Section 1 of 11

Welcome

Agricultural technicians run the hands-on side of crop and livestock science. They plant research plots, pull soil and plant samples, scout fields for bugs and weeds, run tests, and write down numbers that somebody else will turn into a recommendation.

Pay attention to this one. Of the seven careers in this group, it is the only one you can reach with a two-year degree or less, and North Dakota is an agriculture state. That combination does not come along often.

This takes about 15 minutes.

What is a Agricultural Technician?

An agricultural technician is the person who actually does the work in the field and in the lab. You lay out research plots and mark them. You run a tractor, a sprayer, a plot combine, or a seed drill. You pull soil cores and plant tissue samples and label every one so nobody loses track of where it came from. You count insects, weeds, and diseased plants. You run samples through lab equipment. You record every number carefully, because a whole season of work can be ruined by one row of bad data. Some technicians work on the animal side instead, collecting samples and keeping records on livestock. O*NET lists sample job titles like Agricultural Research Technician, Agronomy Research Technician, Field Assistant, Seed Analyst, and Lab Tech.

An agricultural technician collects plant samples in the field.

The Reality: This is a real job for people who do not want six more years of school, and that is worth being clear about. O*NET's survey of people doing this work reports 41% saying a high school diploma is what the job required, 13% saying an associate degree, and 18% saying a bachelor's degree. O*NET puts it in Job Zone Three, medium preparation. Now the honest part. North Dakota pay sits a little under the national middle: the ND middle is $46,960 a year while the national middle is $49,630. Minnesota pays a good deal better, with a middle of $57,310. And it is seasonal work in a state with a short season. Planting and harvest will eat your May and your September. Winter can be slow, or it can be lab and data work indoors, depending on the employer.

Your Responsibilities:

You are the person who makes sure the numbers are real.

A Day in the Life

An agricultural technician tests soil samples in the lab.

6:30 AM — Load the truck. Sample bags, cooler, flags, GPS unit, clipboard.

7:00 AM — Drive 40 minutes out to the research plots. Coffee on the dash.

7:45 AM — Walk the rows. Count aphids in ten spots and write down each count.

9:30 AM — Pull soil cores from the treated and untreated strips. Label every bag.

11:30 AM — Lunch in the truck by the field approach.

12:30 PM — Second farm. Check the sprayer calibration before an application.

3:00 PM — Back to the lab. Log samples into the system and start a moisture test.

4:30 PM — Enter the morning counts into the spreadsheet. Fix two that do not add up.

Early starts, dusty boots, and a lot of writing things down.

Training in North Dakota

A two-year degree is the sweet spot here, and North Dakota has several. This is the one career in this group where you do not need a university degree to get in the door. Many technicians start with a high school diploma and farm experience. A two-year degree moves you up faster and opens the research and precision-ag jobs, and North Dakota's two-year colleges are built for exactly this. If you later want to become an agronomist or a soil scientist, these credits transfer toward a four-year degree, so nothing is wasted.

Training Pathways:

Where to Train in North Dakota:

Before You Start: High school diploma or GED. Take biology, chemistry, and as much math as you can stand. A valid driver’s license matters more here than in almost any other science job, because you will drive to fields every day, and being able to pull a trailer helps. Farm or ranch experience is a real advantage and employers count it.

Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota may be able to help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.

Certification & Licensing

No license is required, but two certifications open doors. Nobody has to be licensed to work as an agricultural technician in North Dakota. But two credentials show up constantly in job ads, and one of them is nearly standard.

Certifications Worth Having:

The Exams: The pesticide exam is monitored by NDSU Extension. The CCA International Exam is $280 for the full exam or a retest, or $105 for a single section. Local board exam prices are set by each local board and the price list I read did not show a North Dakota figure, so ask the North Dakota CCA board what theirs costs.

Cost: NDSU Extension does not publish the pesticide certification fee on its overview page, so call your county extension office and ask before you sign up. For the CCA, plan on the $280 international exam plus the local board exam, plus study materials.

Keeping It Current: North Dakota pesticide certification expires April 1 every three years. You renew by attending recertification training or by testing again through your local extension office. The CCA requires 40 hours of continuing education every two years.

Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Agricultural Technician Pay (May 2025):

What that means: These are real North Dakota numbers from O*NET, not national estimates. The ND middle is $22.58 an hour, about $46,960 a year. Read the whole range, because the shape of it matters. The ND 25th percentile of $44,070 is actually ABOVE the national 25th percentile of $40,950, so the bottom end here is better than the bottom end nationally. But the ND middle of $46,960 is under the national middle of $49,630, and the ND top end falls further behind: ND 90th is $64,270 while the national 90th is $76,480. Minnesota pays noticeably more, with a middle of $57,310 and a 75th percentile of $82,300. In plain terms: North Dakota is a decent place to start in this job and a harder place to get rich in it. Also expect seasonal overtime. Planting and harvest are long days, and that is where a lot of the money is.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 140 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 160 (about 12% growth). Expect about 20 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 4% growth — average.

Outlook: Good, and better here than nationally. North Dakota is projected to go from about 140 of these jobs in 2024 to about 160 by 2034, roughly 12% growth, against about 4% nationally. That works out to about 20 openings a year. Twenty is a small number in plain terms, but measure it against the size of the field: this occupation only has about 140 people in it statewide, so 20 openings a year means the door opens often relative to how many are inside. Seed companies, co-ops, and the NDSU research centers around the state are the places to watch.

Who Hires in ND: Seed and crop input companies, farmer-owned co-ops and agronomy centers, implement dealerships with precision ag departments, the NDSU Research Extension Centers scattered across the state, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the ND Department of Agriculture, crop consulting firms, sugar and edible bean processors, and large farms and ranches.

Work Setting: Outdoors most of the growing season and indoors most of the winter. Fields, research plots, greenhouses, seed labs, and a truck. Expect dust, sun, wind, mud, mosquitoes in June, and cold in October. Long drives between sites are normal, especially in the western half of the state.

Physical Demands: Medium to high. Walking plot rows for hours, kneeling, bending, carrying sample bags and coolers, lifting seed and fertilizer bags, and climbing on and off equipment. You will be on your feet outdoors in heat and cold. Good eyesight for spotting insects and plant symptoms helps a lot.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 19-4012); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

Where This Leads

Path 1: Field or Lab Assistant — Entry level. You collect, label, and log. High school diploma plus farm sense gets you here.

Path 2: Agricultural Technician — You run plots and equipment on your own and own your data.

Path 3: Precision Ag Technician — Guidance systems, yield monitors, drones, and variable-rate maps. The AAS programs aim here.

Path 4: Research Technician or Lead Tech — You run a research station’s field season and train the seasonal crew.

Path 5: Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) — You advise growers directly. Needs the exams plus 2 to 4 years of experience.

Path 6: Agronomist or Soil Scientist — Requires a four-year degree, and often a master’s. Your AAS credits transfer toward it.

The Real Talk

What's Great:

What's Hard:

Be Honest: Can you be outdoors all day in North Dakota weather? Can you write down a number correctly the four-hundredth time? Are you all right with a job that runs hard in May and September and quiet in January?

Part 1: What Attracts You?

What draws you to agricultural technician work?

Part 2: Are You Ready?

1. I can work outdoors in heat, cold, wind, and mud.
2. I am careful and accurate with records and labels.
3. I can drive to job sites every day and I have a license.
4. I can lift and carry sample bags, coolers, and seed bags.
5. I am comfortable around tractors and farm equipment, or willing to learn.
6. I can handle a season where spring and fall are very long days.
7. I am willing to study for the pesticide applicator exam.
8. I am OK with a job that pays a bit under the national middle.

Part 3: Your Next Move

What's your plan?

Your Agricultural Technician Assessment Results

Sources & Learn More

Everything on this page comes from these sources. Each one opens the page the information came from, so you can check it yourself or keep reading.

Career information
Agricultural Technician on O*NET OnLine — what the job involves, the skills it uses, and related jobs.
Pay and employment data
North Dakota pay for Agricultural Technicians — from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025.
North Dakota job outlook, 2024–2034 — state projections from Projections Central.
Education and training
North Dakota schools that train Agricultural Technicians — colleges and programs in this state, with how many people finished recently. From the U.S. Department of Labor, using federal college data (IPEDS).
More career exploration
RUReady.ND.gov career planning — North Dakota’s own career and college planning site. An account may be required.

Pay and outlook figures on this page were taken from the sources above in September 2026. Occupation code: 19-4012.00. Numbers are updated by the agencies over time, so check the links for the newest figures.