Objectives The course "Labor Education" for agriculture-related majors was reformed and innovated to adapt to situations and requirements in the new era and to train skilled talents with high quality specialized in the animal husbandry and veterinary medicine. Methods The animal husbandry and veterinary medicine major of higher vocational colleges was used as an example to conduct the reform and practice in terms of analyzing the situation of learning, teaching designing implementing, and reflecting the teaching. Results Innovative practices including restructuring the content of course, exploring the six-step process of teaching, innovating the " core courses of major +" labor mode, achieving fruitful results in the integration of multi-innovation, and improving value-added evaluation were carried out. Students improved their spirit and skills of labor, competitions of skills, and competitions of innovation and entrepreneurship through four semesters of studying the "Labor Education" course, providing a reference for training the "labor+skills+ innovation and entrepreneurship" and multi-innovation abilities of students in the animal husbandry and veterinary medicine major of higher vocational colleges. But it is necessary to strengthen the evaluation of labor, stimulate the enthusiasm of students, and eliminate students' fear of difficulties. Conclusions The reform and innovation of the course "Labor Education" is a practical need to deepen labor education in higher education institutions, and it is an inevitable path for training the skilled talents with high quality specialized in the animal husbandry and veterinary medicine in the new era. It will provide a certain reference for the reform of the course "Labor Education" in agriculture related higher education institutions.