by Tyne Morgan, US Farm Report
The landscape is changing in farm equipment sales. The days of buying a new combine or large tractor every year may be over, but, small equipment sales are filling in the gap, keeping overall tractor purchases strong. That’s driven by the strength in livestock sector.
“Dairy and livestock was extremely strong last year,” says Todd DeBock, with New Holland. “We're talking 125 PTO horsepower tractors and down, as well as all the haying equipment that goes with it, from the round baler to a disc mower conditioner.”
“With beef cattle prices being fairly favorable and pig prices favorable, that really plays to that say 60 HP up to about 140 HP, so that mid-horsepower tractor. ” says Tom Dean, Case IH. “Then, good interest in hay tool, as well.”
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers just released a report showing sales of larger 4-wheel drive tractors fell 65 percent from December. Combine sales also took a hit, down 47 percent. However, all tractor sales still posted gains, rising 6 percent from last year, with sales of 2-wheel drive tractors under 40 HP up nearly 20 percent.
While some companies that depend on the larger equipment sales are looking at a more depressed outcome in 2015, it's the smaller equipment manufacturers that are very optimistic about possible growth this year.
“This year we expect 2015, in the small under 100 HP , we expect that industry to be maybe up couple points,” says Stephen Barcuch of Kubota.
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Source: AgWeb
