What does a agronomist do?
You walk fields for a living and tell farmers what to put on them, when, and — more often than anyone expects — that they should put nothing on at all.
Also called: crop adviser, field agronomist, crop consultant.
A day looks like
- 1Six or seven farms in a day, and in each one you walk into the middle of the field rather than looking from the gate.
- 2You count. Aphids per plant, weeds per square metre, tillers per row — the decision is a number, not an impression.
- 3You look at the forecast before you recommend anything, because rain in six hours changes the answer.
- 4You tell somebody their crop does not need the spray they were expecting to buy.
Hardest part
In many arrangements you are paid on what you sell. The recommendation that is right for the crop and the one that is good for your commission are not always the same, and the farmer cannot easily tell them apart.
Best part
Walking into a field and finding the beneficial insects have already dealt with the aphids, so the answer is do nothing and it costs the farmer nothing.
How you actually become a agronomist
- At schoolAn agriculture, plant science or biology degree.
- TrainingA professional crop adviser qualification, which is required to give statutory advice in many countries.
- How longThree years for the degree, one or two more for the certification.
- Your first jobTrainee agronomist walking fields alongside somebody experienced.
Frequently asked questions
- Is an agronomist just a salesperson?
- It depends on how they are paid, and it is the honest tension in the job. Independent agronomists charge a fee for advice; others work for suppliers and earn on product. The professional certification exists partly to hold a line between the two.
- What is a treatment threshold?
- A researched number — pests per plant, or per sweep of a net — below which treating costs more than the damage would. Counting against thresholds is what makes the recommendation evidence rather than instinct.
- Will drones and sensors replace walking fields?
- They are already useful for spotting variation from above. What they cannot do is dig a hole, feel the structure of the soil, turn a leaf over and identify what is actually on it — which is why agronomists still walk.
More from Agriculture & Nature
Veterinary Surgeon
You diagnose patients who cannot tell you anything, in front of an owner who can — and the owner is often wrong about what they saw.
Farm Manager
You run a business whose main supplier is the weather, and you make decisions in spring that you do not find out about until autumn.
Shepherd
You look after a flock that hides illness by instinct, and for six weeks a year you deliver lambs at three in the morning.
Animal Welfare Inspector
You go to somebody's property after a complaint, decide whether an animal is suffering, and are the person who has to say so out loud.
Water Bailiff
You patrol a river, check that people fishing it are allowed to, and work out where the thing that killed the fish came from.
Fisheries Officer
You board working fishing boats at sea and check that what is in the hold matches what the law and the quota allow.
Ecologist
You survey a piece of land before it is built on, and you are the person who says whether what is living there stops the build.
Soil Scientist
You dig holes and read what is underneath, which decides whether a place can grow food, hold a building, or be lived on safely.
Marine Biologist
You study things living in water you cannot breathe in, which means most of the job is designing a way to find out rather than looking.
Countryside Ranger
You look after a piece of countryside that belongs to everybody, which means managing the habitat, the livestock and the public at the same time.
Veterinary Nurse
You run the anaesthetic while the vet operates, which means for that hour the animal's breathing is your responsibility and nobody else's.
Forestry Worker
You fell trees deliberately, in a direction you chose, using cuts that decide where several tonnes of timber is going to land.
Arborist
You climb into a living structure on ropes and take it apart in an order that keeps it holding you up the whole time.
Beekeeper
You open a box containing fifty thousand animals that can all sting you, and you read the colony's health from what is drawn on the frames.
Dairy Technician
You milk a herd twice a day, every day of the year, and the routine you follow is what decides whether they stay healthy.
Horticulturist
You make new plants from old ones and keep them alive through the stage where almost anything kills them.
Farrier
You trim and shoe horses' feet, which is anatomy, blacksmithing and handling a half-tonne animal, at the same time, bent double.