A combine on display at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois
An equipment manufacturers group says despite the down economy,
farmers are investing in more new equipment.
Curt Blades with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers tells Brownfield he’s pleasantly surprised to see the equipment market remain stable and even grow in some categories. He says there have even been some bright spots such as the nearly 20% year-over-year increase in combine sales. “There’s not a lot of combines sold, but we sold about 700 combines more in 2018 than we did in 2017, so that’s a pretty good indication that there’s some farmers that are actually feeling comfortable about what the future of the ag economy is going to be moving forward.”
And he says, along with the cyclical nature of machinery purchases, there may have been other influencing factors pushing combine sales.
