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Animal Breeders: Career Overview

Select and breed animals according to their genealogy, characteristics, and offspring. May require knowledge of artificial insemination techniques and equipment use. May involve keeping records on heats, birth intervals, or pedigree.

What Do Animal Breeders Do?

Typical responsibilities of animal breeders span:

• Feed and water animals, and clean and disinfect pens, cages, yards, and hutches.
• Observe animals in heat to detect approach of estrus and exercise animals to induce or hasten estrus, if necessary.
• Treat minor injuries and ailments and contact veterinarians to obtain treatment for animals with serious illnesses or injuries.
• Purchase and stock supplies of feed and medicines.
• Select animals to be bred, and semen specimens to be used, according to knowledge of animals, genealogies, traits, and desired offspring characteristics.
• Examine animals to detect symptoms of illness or injury.
• Build hutches, pens, and fenced yards.
• Record animal characteristics such as weights, growth patterns, and diets.

Key Skills and Knowledge

Effective animal breeders combine a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Most Important Skills

The competencies most important for this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Knowledge Areas

Other Animal Breeders Job Titles

This career also goes by job titles like:

• Animal Breeder
• Animal Husbandman
• Animal Husbandry Technician
• Animal Technician
• Artificial Insemination Technician (AI Technician)
• Artificial Inseminator
• Aviculturist
• Bee Breeder

Employment and Demand

There are roughly 117,176 animal breeders working in the United States today. This occupation is expected to grow by +1.0% over the projection horizon.

Animal Breeders Pay

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$49,553
Hourly median	$23.82
10th percentile	$31,279
25th percentile	$40,416
75th percentile	$58,691
90th percentile	$67,828

Pay can vary substantially based on experience, location, and industry.

Pay by State

State	Annual median salary
Ohio	$71,930
California	$58,240
New York	$50,440
Minnesota	$48,670
Idaho	$48,620
Texas	$48,230
Wisconsin	$45,840
Kentucky	$45,730
Alabama	$29,140

Where Animal Breeders Earn the Most

Compensation for animal breeders vary by region. The following regions pay the most:

Region	Median annual wage	Share of U.S. jobs	Location quotient
Middle Atlantic	$50,440	42.3%	2.04
Plains States	$48,670	7.7%	1.34
Southwest	$48,230	21.2%	0.72
Great Lakes	$45,840	13.5%	2.18
Southeast	$35,361	15.4%	1.95

Top Metro Areas

Metro area	State	Median annual wage	Employment
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	CA	$58,240
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	CA	$58,180
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	NY	$50,440
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	CA	$49,440

Top Industries Employing Animal Breeders

The largest employers of animal breeders are concentrated in the following sectors:

Industry	Employment	Median annual wage
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting	810	$48,670
Other Services (except Public Administration)	130	$49,440
Manufacturing	120	$50,240
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	30	$38,820

The table below shows some of the most common industries where those employed in this career field work.

Tools and Technology

• Document management software: Adobe Acrobat (hot technology)
• Graphics or photo imaging software: Adobe Creative Cloud software (hot technology)
• Graphics or photo imaging software: Adobe Illustrator (hot technology)
• Desktop publishing software: Adobe InDesign (hot technology)
• Graphics or photo imaging software: Adobe Photoshop (hot technology)
• Data base user interface and query software: Microsoft Access (hot technology)
• Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (hot technology)
• Office suite software: Microsoft Office software (hot technology)
• Electronic mail software: Microsoft Outlook (hot technology)
• Document management software: Microsoft SharePoint (hot technology)
• Operating system software: Microsoft Windows (hot technology)
• Word processing software: Microsoft Word (hot technology)

The Day-to-Day Environment

The work environment for animal breeders is shaped by the following characteristics:

• Freedom to Make Decisions
• Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals
• Outdoors, Exposed to All Weather Conditions
• Consequence of Error
• Outdoors, Under Cover

How to Become Animal Breeders

Typical animal breeders positions require a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. The role falls in Some Preparation Needed (Job Zone 2), signaling the level of preparation typically expected.

Other Careers to Consider

Similar Occupations

• Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers (Primary-Short)
• Buyers and Purchasing Agents, Farm Products (Supplemental)
• Animal Scientists (Supplemental)
• Food Scientists and Technologists (Supplemental)
• Soil and Plant Scientists (Supplemental)
• Agricultural Technicians (Primary-Long)
• Veterinarians (Supplemental)
• Veterinary Technologists and Technicians (Primary-Long)

Top Programs to Study For This Career

Aspiring animal breeders commonly pursue programs in:

Agriculture, Agriculture Operations, and Related Sciences

3 programs across 1 majors

• Agricultural Production

About the Data

Statistics shown above are sourced from the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 45-2021.00 (Animal Breeders).