Agricultural Machinery and Equipment
AOM2316 — Agricultural Machinery and Equipment
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Course Description
AOM 2316 Agricultural Machinery and Equipment "addresses facilities and equipment essential to a successful agricultural enterprise. Topics include land preparation, facility layout, storage facilities, animal facilities, agricultural machinery, harvesting technology and safety around equipment" (statewide description, which all three carriers use).
Three Florida state colleges teach it, all at 3 credits and all under the same title, each in an agribusiness program:
- College of Central Florida (Ocala), in its Agribusiness Management program. Instruction draws on CF's Vintage Farm campus.
- North Florida College (Madison), where it is a core course of the 60-credit A.S. in Agribusiness Management.
- St. Johns River State College (Palatka).
The statewide title ends in (L), which marks it as a lower-division course. It is not a lab-only course.
⚠ It is broader than the title suggests
The course is as much about facilities as machines. Land preparation, the layout of a farmstead, storage buildings and animal housing take up a large share of it. College of Central Florida's topic list adds three units the title does not mention: the economics of agricultural machinery, waste management and principles of electricity. Expect the course to cover farm infrastructure as a whole, with machinery at its centre.
Learning Outcomes
Required Outcomes
- Apply principles of land preparation techniques (St. Johns River outcome).
- Plan and evaluate facility layouts, including storage and animal facilities (St. Johns River outcome).
- Describe the function and operation of the main kinds of agricultural machinery: tractors, tillage, planting, spraying and harvesting equipment.
- Explain the internal combustion engine and the power train, including the power take-off (PTO) and hydraulics.
- Use units of measure and calibrate equipment, such as a sprayer or a seed or fertilizer applicator.
- Calculate field capacity and efficiency of a machine, and use them to size equipment to an operation.
- Analyse current harvesting technology.
- Demonstrate knowledge of safety protocols around agricultural equipment.
Optional Outcomes
- Estimate the ownership and operating costs of a machine and compare owning, leasing and custom hire (CF's economics unit).
- Apply basic electrical principles to farm buildings and equipment (CF).
- Plan animal-waste and agricultural-waste management for a facility (CF).
Major Topics
Required Topics
This list follows College of Central Florida's ten-unit outline, which fits the statewide description.
- Units of measure and calibration
- Land preparation and layout
- Animal and storage facilities
- Machines: internal combustion engines and the power train
- Equipment efficiency and capacity
- Harvesting technology
- Safety around equipment
Optional Topics
- Economics of agricultural machinery
- Waste management
- Principles of electricity
- GPS guidance and auto-steer (taught in depth in
AOM 2433 Introduction to Precision Agriculture)
Resources & Tools
- Field and Solie, Introduction to Agricultural Engineering Technology: A Problem Solving Approach, the text College of Central Florida lists. Its problem-solving chapters on machinery capacity, calibration and costs fit this course well.
- ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) standards, including the slow-moving-vehicle emblem and machinery-management data used for cost and capacity calculations.
- Equipment operator's manuals. Learning to read one is part of the course.
- UF/IFAS Extension publications on sprayer calibration and on machinery costs.
- Hands-on work with the college's farm equipment, where the campus has it.
Career Pathways
- Farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers (SOC 11-9013). See this site's Agricultural Manager career path, which includes this course.
- Agricultural equipment operators (SOC 45-2091).
- Farm equipment mechanics and service technicians (SOC 49-3041), together with equipment dealerships' service and parts departments.
- Equipment sales and agricultural lending, where judging the value and fit of machinery is part of the job.
Special Information
Offering Notes
| Institution | Its title | Credits | Note |
|---|
| College of Central Florida (CF) | Agricultural Machinery and Equipment | 3 | Agribusiness Management program; ten-unit outline including machinery economics, waste management and electricity. |
| North Florida College (NFC) | Agricultural Machinery and Equipment | 3 | Core course of the A.S. in Agribusiness Management (60 credits). |
| St. Johns River State College (SJRSC) | Agricultural Machinery and Equipment | 3 | Five published outcomes: land preparation, layout, mechanisation, harvesting technology, safety. |
All three carry it at 3 credits under the same title. None publishes a contact-hour figure; the guide records 45, the Florida convention for a three-credit lecture course. ⚠ A course with equipment work may schedule more time; check the class schedule.
Prerequisites and transfer
No prerequisite (the statewide record says "none"). Because three public colleges teach the same number, it transfers among them as the same course. ⚠ Florida's universities do not teach a lower-division equivalent. UF's AOM 4314C Power and Machinery Management is the upper-division course on this subject, and a university will normally take AOM 2316 as elective credit.
⚠ Safety is not a side topic
BLS warns that "tractors, tools, and other farm machinery and equipment can cause serious injury." Tractor overturns and PTO entanglement are among the leading causes of death in agriculture. Treat the safety unit, and any equipment you operate during the course, accordingly. AOM 3073 Safety in Agriculture covers the subject in depth.