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Try It by Career Calling

Senior Sheep Farm Worker

Technicians and Trades WorkersUsually a trade certificate or similar, or several years of experience

What the work is

Performs skilled tasks on a sheep farm or station in supervising the breeding, raising, feeding, treatment and welfare of sheep.

Would you enjoy the work?

These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.

  • Oversees sheep breeding programs and the rearing of lambs
  • Develops and implements sheep feeding plans, and identifies health and nutrition programs in sheep
  • Establishes and maintains pastures and fodder crops for sheep production, and identifies plant health and nutrition problems
  • Supervises health and welfare programs for sheep
  • Implements biosecurity management measures
  • Supervises sheep farming operations such as herding, catching and drenching sheep
  • Supervises general farming activities such as the maintenance and cleaning of sheep housing, water supply and irrigation systems, and other farm infrastructure
  • Supervises work routines and trains Sheep Farm Workers

Try it

A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a fictional mixed sheep and cattle property on a dry country plain, with yards, paddocks and a shearing shed. They are fictional.

The kind of days you could have

Good days

  • A mob of healthy lambs running across a green paddock after good rain
  • A young worker learns to read stock behaviour because you showed them how
  • A long day finished well, with the stock settled and the gates shut behind you

Hard days

  • A dry spell, empty troughs and a decision about moving stock
  • Long days alone in the saddle or on the bike, far from the homestead
  • A sick animal on a day when the vet is hours away

Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.

Work a mission

Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.

Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 343236, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.