Farmers modernized their tractors and combines during the agricultural boom that started in 2006, says analyst David Widmar at the blog Agricultural Economic Insights. Some 17 percent of combines and 16 percent of tractors on U.S. farms were five years old or newer at the time of the 2012 Census of Agriculture, he said. Those are the highest figures for “newer” equipment going back to the 1997 census.
“The higher proportions of new equipment on farms likely mean that many producers will be able to defer future equipment purchases in potentially tighter financial times,” Widmar writes. If they curtail purchases due to lower commodity prices, it will be “critical that equipment manufacturers and retailers carefully plan and consider the products and services they can offer to producers keeping their equipment in the fields for more hours and years.”
AgriMoney quoted the chief executive of Titan International as saying the agricultural and mining sectors are in “major cyclical downturns that will last minimally through 2015, if not into 2016.” Maurice Taylor said demand for new equipment has declined.