By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Nationwide farmers are having issues buying new farm equipment, which is also making it difficult to buy used farm equipment.
Greg Peterson, better known as Machinery Pete, says there are a couple different factors that are causing the rise in the price of used farm equipment.
"One, is that farm income is up," Peterson tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "Commodity prices went up in the fall of 2020 and have been pushing to very high levels so, that's number one."
And number two is the current trend of high prices on new farm equipment
"Supply chain issues are actually getting worse so manufacturers like John Deere or Case IH, they can't make enough," Peterson explains. "Farmers want to buy new to update their equipment line."
Peterson says though those manufacturers can't produce enough equipment to keep up with the demand. For example, if you were looking for a new planter earlier this spring, all of those were pre ordered last fall.
Peterson says the problem is nationwide and so far, is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon
"Things are always subject to change but I don't see any tea leaves right now that would point to a cooling off, in fact it's getting hotter" Peterson points out. "In fact, our data, I've got three plus decades of tracking data patterns, and normally from middle of March through the summer is the soft time of year."
Peterson says that the soft time of year is while crops are in the ground and farmers can wait and see how they come out.
He says they then become aggressive near the end of the year to figure out what equipment they might need to replace, but right now.
"That's all out the window right now, you have to be proactive and plan ahead," he explains.
Peterson says the market has continued to go higher since April.
Recently, Peterson says he saw a 24-year-old John Deere tractor sold in Illinois for 21-thousand 500 dollars, selling even higher than it did brand new.
But is there any state where the used farm equipment problem is worse off?
"Nope, they're all on fire, and I've never seen that before," Peterson sadly says. "And we cover the US and Canada so usually there's always been somewhere where used values are softer, and there just isn't now."
Peterson says normally you might see prices differ depending on the region farm equipment is coming from
But, since 2021, Peterson says a data point he's seen is the tightness of farm equipment is making prices mostly stay the same, no matter the region it comes from.
Cover image courtesy Pixabay