Also called: Grain Buyer, Origination Merchandiser
Buys grain from farmers for an elevator or grain company and arranges where it gets shipped and sold.
Farmers call all day asking for your bid on corn. You set prices based on futures markets and what it costs to ship by rail or barge, then line up trains and trucks to move the grain to processors and export terminals.
Bonuses tied to margins are common.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in agribusiness or ag economics.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics.
Shrinking (about -4% over 10 years). Buyers and purchasing agents, farm products.
Medium risk in 5 years, high in 10. AI tools price and route grain automatically, so fewer merchandisers per company; farmer relationships remain the human edge.
Classes: Economics, Statistics, Agriculture business.
Official data: O*NET occupation 13-1021.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.