New Tractor Sales Are Declining

[jyoutz]

From a produce, dairy & beef farmers perspective, I would think they are now starting to realize more cash flow. A gallon of milk is now $10. Fresh produce and beef are now double what they were 2 years ago. We were told this would happen as a result of diesel, fertilizer & seed prices.
I think the large scale farmers are now starting to buy newer equipment, probably to avoid paying taxes on the new income from soaring food prices.
End point is new tractors are going to be selling. My AG dealers lots are filling up for spring. Lots of Fendts out on my one dealers lot.

My hope is they trade in lots of perfectly good used tractors, balers, rakes, tedders, spreaders, etc.. Thats where I get my deals.

Milk is $3.52/ gallon at my local Walmart. Cost of living must be extremely high where you are seeing it at $10/gallon.

 

[Hay Dude]

Good luck with that wal mart Milk.
I buy local milk. More expensive, but Wal mart?
Probably water with white dye in it. lol

 

[scootr]

The bird flu has really impacted the price of eggs . Don't care much for milk but I do like eggs.
Food prices are up another 11% over last year. To read more about what and why go here > Why Are Food Prices Still Rising?

 

[jyoutz]

Good luck with that wal mart Milk.
I buy local milk. More expensive, but Wal mart?
Probably water with white dye in it. lol

It is packaged at the same dairies as the more expensive brands. In fact our local creamland dairy runs some Walmart products; the same stuff as their name brand.

 

[PreacherM]

The bird flu has really impacted the price of eggs . Don't care much for milk but I do like eggs.
Food prices are up another 11% over last year. To read more about what and why go here > Why Are Food Prices Still Rising?

The article didn't mention bird flu, but that's very true. We live about 2.5 miles (upwind) of a 4 million bird laying facility. This past summer/fall they had to 'depopulate' all the barns because of bird flu. It raised quite a stink in the community! During that time period the number of people stopping to buy eggs from our backyard flock of 14 was ridiculous. We had half a dozen people wanting to get a couple dozen eggs a week, plus random others stopping by. (Of course we are selling eggs too cheap, but mostly like just being able to get rid of the ones we don't use.) The 4 million dead chickens were mixed in with wood chips and are being composted on-site. The long mounds of compost (by my own guesstimate) cover about 30 acres.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

You can actually buy local farm fresh eggs for less than you can at the grocery. The wife is getting a coop this spring and a bunch of hens. My son will be raising meat birds for 4H.

 

[Alan W.]

Wife sells some eggs to cover our feed cost so we get by cheap.
But lately we have been hit with way more request for eggs. Cant even start to meet the demand.
Not wanting to start an egg farm but I might put another crew on.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Organic milk in Southern Washington is going for $5.65 a half gallon at the local rural store. So $10.00 a gallon it is, for me.

 

[5030]

Wife sells some eggs to cover our feed cost so we get by cheap.
But lately we have been hit with way more request for eggs. Cant even start to meet the demand.
Not wanting to start an egg farm but I might put another crew on.

Keep in mind that inputs are everything and feed isn't getting any less.

 

[jezreel]

Moving from Eggs and Milk to Zero-Turn Mowers. In the Spring, I will be getting a new ZT. I have settled on the [AFFILIATE=1, nofollow=true, newwindow=true, title="Kubota"]Kubota[/AFFILIATE] Z422KW-54. List, Base Price on Dec. 31 was $8,799. On Jan 01 the price jumped to $9,399. Ouch! ! ! Yeah, I’m assuming everything, including tractors, is going up, up, up. But, the topic at hand is, “New Tractor Sales Are Declining”. I don’t know about that. When ya need a new Machine, well, ya just gotta get one. As bad as I hated seeing the price of that ZT go up, I still gotta get one.

 

[5030]

Already own 2 and both will outlast me. Far as eggs go, I like hard boiled on my salad and oven fried but live, no way. I have histoplasmosis so chickens and me don't get along well.

 

[scootr]

Moving from Eggs and Milk to Zero-Turn Mowers. In the Spring, I will be getting a new ZT. I have settled on the Kubota Z422KW-54. List, Base Price on Dec. 31 was $8,799. On Jan 01 the price jumped to $9,399. Ouch! ! ! Yeah, I’m assuming everything, including tractors, is going up, up, up. But, the topic at hand is, “New Tractor Sales Are Declining”. I don’t know about that. When ya need a new Machine, well, ya just gotta get one. As bad as I hated seeing the price of that ZT go up, I still gotta get one.

That is not true for all potential buyers. You can almost always fix the old machine for far less than buying new... there are many cost saving used machine options too. Happy you are getting what you want no matter the cost increase but not everybody will go that route. Our business costs went up 15% last year. Sales declined by the same amount. If you are not watching your expenses and making cost saving decisions then you are in the top tier. Enjoy.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Moving from Eggs and Milk to Zero-Turn Mowers. In the Spring, I will be getting a new ZT. I have settled on the [AFFILIATE='1, nofollow=true, newwindow=true, title="Kubota"']Kubota[/AFFILIATE] Z422KW-54. List, Base Price on Dec. 31 was $8,799. On Jan 01 the price jumped to $9,399. Ouch! ! ! Yeah, I’m assuming everything, including tractors, is going up, up, up. But, the topic at hand is, “New Tractor Sales Are Declining”. I don’t know about that. When ya need a new Machine, well, ya just gotta get one. As bad as I hated seeing the price of that ZT go up, I still gotta get one.

Going from 60" to 54" was a life improvement in my experience.

 

[tradosaurus]

Going from 60" to 54" was a life improvement in my experience.

How so?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Going up to 72” changed mine.

 

[eagle628]

The USDA milk price average for our marketing area in 2022 was ~$25/cwt, before cooperative fees, trucking, promotional payments, etc, which is historically pretty high, but on the other hand diesel and grain were also historically high, and the 2023 projection is ~$22/cwt. So far grain is remaining very high and unfortunately interest rates are starting to bite on variable rate operating lines of credit, which is going to become problematic come spring fieldwork when seed and fertilizer and diesel have to get bought. So I doubt that dairies are going to be flush with cash and going out to upgrade equipment left and right anytime soon.

 

[jezreel]

That is not true for all potential buyers. You can almost always fix the old machine for far less than buying new... there are many cost saving used machine options too. Happy you are getting what you want no matter the cost increase but not everybody will go that route. Our business costs went up 15% last year. Sales declined by the same amount. If you are not watching your expenses and making cost saving decisions then you are in the top tier. Enjoy.

I agree with ya there, but. . . That is why I said when ya NEED one, not when ya WANT one. I’m 3 years on my property now, and have improved it to where I am WAY tired of mowing with my push mower. I have grass growing where I want it and need something for 3-4 acres of mowing. So, I NEED a new ZT. Same can be said when I bought my first tractor 2 years ago.

But I hear where you’re coming from. Sales might be down due to people repairing rather than going to the store for a new one.

 

[rScotty]

I hope it is true that people are beginning to be repairing rather than buying new. That would be good for everything: people, the earth, and a pretty good way to deal with inflation too.

It's hard to lose a lot of money on an old tractor and a guy might even break even.

There are still lots of them out there. Available & cheap. On my way to work there are several non-working farms with a regular line-up of old tractors by the fence.
rScotty

 

[elias2]

I would prefer a 5-year-old or 10-year-old to renovate it and fix it than buy a new tractor these days with such prices, maybe someday they will go down to lower prices

 

[jyoutz]

I would prefer a 5-year-old or 10-year-old to renovate it and fix it than buy a new tractor these days with such prices, maybe someday they will go down to lower prices

From my experience, you have to go quite a bit older to start getting significantly reduced prices. Five and even 10 year old tractors are selling at 80%+ the price of new.