Last month, farmers showed a lot of interest in large row crop tractors.
Curt Blades with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers says every year is different in the ag industry, but right now, the markets appear to be satisfied.
“As we look at the month of March for tractors and combine sales in North America, it was kind of softness across the board. But there was a little bit of a bright spot around tractors that are over 100 horsepower in the United States. Those traditional row crop tractors continue to be strong in March, that’s largely due to the fact that were integrated into planting season. We also saw some real softness in combine sales. Combine sales were down about 20 percent from this time last year, but the other side of the story is this time last year we had a really strong March. And then, we continue to see a little bit of softness in that smaller horsepower tractor market, those tractors that are under 40 horsepower, they were down 15 percent for the month of March and approaching 20 percent for the year. That’s really an indication of that market being satisfied.”
Blade says despite current conditions, he remains optimistic about the future of farm equipment over the next several years.
