A survey released this week shows that farmers are losing an average of $3,348 per year to repair downtime and restrictions because farm equipment makers limit their ability to fix tractors, combines, and other equipment.
The survey of 53 farmers across 14 states, conducted by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the National Farmers Union, estimates that if every farmer in the country faced similar losses, restrictions placed on farmers repairing their equipment would cost U.S. producers more than $3 billion a year.
The cost of labor and parts has risen in recent years, increasing the financial strain on farms when it comes to repairs. According to the report, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that repair costs have nearly doubled over the past two decades for equipment used to produce soybeans and corn, the nation’s two most widely grown crops.
Additionally, when producers face the stress of repair costs and subsequent downtime, it increases their anxiety about their farm’s solvency. A third of growers surveyed said they worried about losing their farm due to equipment failures, prolonged downtime, and costly repairs during busy growing seasons.
“They can be watching as their crop and their livelihoods literally wither on the vine,” said Kevin O’Reilly, U.S. PIRG Right to Repair campaign director and the report’s author.
“It’s very clear that something is wrong with this system,” O’Reilley said. “These farmers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on this equipment, and the idea that they don’t completely own it and they can’t fix it when it breaks is offensive to the American way.”
The report comes at a time when states across the country are introducing legislation that could allow farmers and foresters to repair their own equipment, a movement broadly known as the Right to Repair. According to the Public Interest Research Group, the U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s parent group, 15 states have introduced legislation this year that would allow farmers in that state to repair their agricultural equipment.
On Tuesday, the Colorado legislature passed the Consumer Right to Repair Agricultural Equipment Act (HB23-1011), which would allow the state’s farmers to repair their equipment and would force large equipment manufacturers, such as John Deere and New Holland, to share the information and access to what individuals and independent repair shops need to fix the equipment.
“Everyone who eats will benefit from this law,” said a statement on the pending Colorado law from Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association. “Farmers will have more timely options for repair, which will make it easier to use high-tech products, which, in turn, enable more productive farms.”
Earlier this year, John Deere announced a joint agreement with the American Farm Bureau Federation to increase farmers’ access to repair materials and information, but PIRG and farm groups are skeptical of the agreement and others like it, including one announced last month by CNH Industrial.