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Animal Breeders: Job Description

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 Tasks Do Animal Breeders Take On?

The day-to-day responsibilities of animal breeders include:

• 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.

What Animal Breeders Need to Know

Effective animal breeders rely on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Most Important Skills

The competencies that matter most in this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Knowledge Areas

Related Job Titles

People in this occupation may also be known by titles such as:

• 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.

How Much Do Animal Breeders Make?

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

Top-Paying U.S. Regions

Pay for animal breeders vary by region. Top regions by median wage:

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

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Animal Breeders

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

Which Industries Hire Animal Breeders

Most animal breeders work in these industries:

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

Below are examples of industries where animal breeders work:

Tech Stack

• 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)

What the Workplace Is Like

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. This occupation sits in Some Preparation Needed (Job Zone 2), reflecting 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)

References

Data on this page comes 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).