Editor’s note: Farm Equipment's all-new 2024 “Boots on the Ground” series gathers insights and best practices from highly successful 4-store Deere operation Alliance Tractor and covers the company’s successes and challenges throughout 2024 in all departments. The series details editors’ on-location visits at the dealership’s Vincennes store in southwest Indiana each quarter, covering each season and its unique opportunities and challenges. The series takes an intimate look at the dealership’s operations, shadowing key employees in their day-to-day tasks in addition to examining seasonal trends over the course of the year. Covering a smaller dealership competing with the 3 large-store Deere dealers surrounding it, the series catalogs the unique tools Alliance Tractor deploys to find success in its market relative to its larger competitors. 

It’s almost done raining on a late February afternoon in Vincennes, Ind., where the team at 4-store Indiana and Illinois John Deere dealer Alliance Tractor’s Vincennes store prepares for planting season. They’re hoping for a dry spring, though they operate in an area around Vincennes well-known for rain and, as a city between 2 rivers, flooding. They know a wet spring means more planter breakdowns and remote service calls, so even as they hope for the best, they prepare for the worst.

Among the key customers of the Vincennes store is award-winning farmer and current No-Till Farmer Conservation Ag Operator Fellow Ray McCormick. An upcoming 4-part series from No-Till Farmer on McCormick unpacks his accomplishments in ag and touring his operation. 

Farm Equipment’s “Boots on the Ground” series, meanwhile, uncovers the keys to Alliance Tractor’s success. The series returns you to the Vincennes store 3 more times throughout the year connecting during each season and reporting on store plans. During this first visit in late February, the store gears up for spring planting in each department, setting goals and fine-tuning the processes they expect to carry them to success in 2024.

The 2024 “Boots on the Ground” series is sponsored by:

Conservation Connection

Half the farmers in the area around its Vincennes store practice no-till farming. McCormick is one of those growers and known for his conservation advocacy.

Salesperson Ryan Seger practices no-till on his own farm and believes in its benefits, particularly in strengthening soil structure and reducing erosion.

“Over time, we’ve seen a significant improvement in the tilth of our soil,” he says. “We have some very tight clay soil and over the years of working it, it seemed like we lost the structure. Since going to no-till, the structure has really come back.

“We had many fields, especially around our home farm, where it seemed every year the county needed to come out and clean our ditches. And since we’ve gone to no-till, they rarely ever have to clean out our ditches anymore.”

Seger can speak at length about the various benefits he sees from no-tilling and the different conservation methods they’ve used on their farm.

Like many no-tillers, he searches for other practices to improve his operation and makes a point of communicating with other growers on their own successes and challenges. He laughs while mentioning how he learned one lesson from another farmer about the potential odor-based problems that can come with planting tillage radishes as cover crops.

“We’ve talked to other farmers about being cautious on where you plant those because a neighbor planted them on the edge of town,” he says. “In March when the radishes started decomposing, the smell from that was extreme.”

Relationships Sell

Seger credits this connection and exchange of information with customers — specifically on conservation — as part of his success in sales. He says the better he can understand a customer’s operation, the easier he can get that farmer the right piece of equipment for their needs.

“It’s nice when you have firsthand knowledge to share,” he says. “One of the things I really like about the farming industry is there’s a lot of information flowing back and forth with the majority of customers. 

“It’s nice to talk to Ray about what he is doing on his farm that he’s found to be successful, and then we’ll talk about some of the things we’ve tried as well. If you’re working with a customer on a planter and know it’s no-till, there are different things we may talk about from our experience and make recommendations from what I hear from other customers or what we’ve seen on our farm.”

This “no-till connection” functions as a two-way street. McCormick knew Seger before his days working at the dealership and their no-till connection has only improved that relationship. 

McCormick talks about how important his relationship with the dealership is, particularly with Seger.

“We’ve bought a bunch of machinery here and worked with him, and there’s nobody more honest,” says McCormick. “He’s a no-tiller and cover cropper, which makes me really like him. But he’s a good person.”

McCormick’s working relationship with the Vincennes store, located 4 miles from his home, goes back many years to its days as Vincennes Tractor, a single-store dealership founded in 1978 and recipient of Farm Equipment’s 2008 Dealership of the Year in the small-store category.

“The manager here, Jason Boyles, is a great person,” he says, adding Boyles had just shown him some pictures of his son duck hunting. “I’ve got a long relationship with the service department. All of that is important when you’re working with a dealership. When you’re down out in the field and you need help, they’re going to do whatever they can to get you up and going again.”

Boyles says the relationships transcend the business. Customers aren’t just buying from Alliance Tractor — they’re buying from Ryan, Jim and Tyler too. He extends that emphasis to the parts counter as well.

“Our parts folks are salespeople as well,” says Boyles. “They’re trusted partners with the guys who come into the store. Ryan and I deal with a certain group of customers, but those guys at the counter deal with all of our customers. Product knowledge is huge as well, but those guys at the counter build relationships with our ag customers just like the sales guys.”

Keep ‘Em Coming Back with Parts

The Vincennes store recently converted a combine storage shed into a parts warehouse. Parts Manager Jamie McNeely says the extra space allows him to keep larger parts in greater “on-hand” quantities. 

“Parts are getting bigger, so we needed a bigger space,” he says. “We needed more square footage to store bigger parts and quantities of those bigger parts. We weren’t able to keep several of the larger items on hand and now we can. Before it was 1 or 2, and now I can keep 10. And for something like filters, instead of buying 10 to put on a shelf, I can buy 50. I get better purchasing power with that.”

McNeely sees only more demand for storage space as the parts business continues to grow. Although only 4 stores, Alliance Tractor has customers from 5 states coming to them for parts.

Award-winning farmer Ray McCormick’s relationship with Alliance Tractor’s Vincennes, Ind., store goes back decades. Michaela Paukner

Boyles credits the dealership’s attitude toward parts as part of its success while nestled among larger Deere dealers. 

With John Deere dealers Hutson Inc. (Farm Equipment’s 2023 Dealership of the Year), Sloan Implement and Sydenstricker Nobbe Partners (Farm Equipment’s 2021 Dealership of the Year) on all sides, Alliance Tractor hangs its hat on parts as a 4-store operation.

“One of the biggest things that’s kept customers and gained customers is we have a lot of parts on hand,” Boyles says. “When other Deere dealers don’t stock a certain part, they would call us, and we would tend to have it. Well, they do that 3-4 times, and they don’t call the other guy anymore. And that turns into sales and turns into service business. That’s probably been our best thing to hold our own for sure.”

Having a farming family — the Schillings — as owners contributes to the dealership’s decision to keep more parts on-hand, Seger says.

“It’s nice having an owner with an ag background who really understands what’s required to help our customers,” says Seger. “Along those lines, Doug also focuses on service, making sure we have really competent technicians.

“Doug is proactive on is stocking parts. Obviously, there’s a cost to warehousing parts, but certainly there’s a big investment too for a customer who comes in and buys a combine. They’re going to expect us to keep a lot of the normal wear items in there. 

“It’s not going to be acceptable if they come in, and we don’t stock a bearing or a chain or a belt that’s commonly used. They just made a major investment in this piece of equipment, and then they’re supposed to be down a day or two for us to get the parts in? Obviously we can’t keep every part, but we hope more often than not, they’re able to leave with the part that they need.”

Keeping the right parts on hand requires McNeely to keep a close eye on how and when they order parts. Often, it means monitoring how Deere’s parts ordering system tracks the store’s inventory and overriding certain parameters when it doesn’t fit how McNeely and others manage Alliance Tractor’s inventory levels.

“John Deere has its own system, where we put in how many we want to stock as far as a maximum and a minimum, and then the program just makes sure that we keep those in stock,” says McNeely. “Say we want to keep 4 total of a part, but no less than 2. Once we get to 2, it’ll send 2. It automatically orders it for us.

“There are times where I’ll look at a part and say, ‘I’ve sold a bunch of this, and the system hasn’t stocked it for me yet.’ I might be looking at trends over the last 3 months where the system only looks at a 30-day span. We’ll go in and force it to stock it for us at that point. We have to constantly be watching.”

The trends that dictate how the store orders can change every year, says McNeely. It can change in the blink of an eye once planters start hitting the fields and those first breakdowns come rolling in. That’s made easier, however, through his strong relationships with other Deere dealers.

“We have a great network with dealers to our south,” he says. “There are dealerships that we communicate with that I can get early trends sometimes. We work hard with that, too, to make sure that in and outside of our area, we’re in good standing with everybody so, if we need something, we can help each other out.”

McNeely has a particularly helpful contact in Texas, with whom he talks before each season to exchange information and help each other identify trends, such as which planter parts break the most and need the most replacing. What’s happening in Texas doesn’t always translate to Vincennes and the area’s conditions, but it does give him a general direction and sense of early problems on new models.

McNeely smiles when asked about his projections for 2024. He doesn’t see a lot of change compared to last year, though parts revenue could slightly surpass 2023 levels. 

“We’re definitely not going to go down,” says McNeely. “Farmers around here aren’t shy about spending. They got to keep equipment up and going. I’ve been up here 4 years now, and it just keeps going up and up every day.”

Hoping for a Dry Spring

The area surrounding the Vincennes store frequently floods, something McCormick mentions repeatedly. The city runs between the Wabash and White Rivers, which fill with rain from the Northern part of the state. People in the area treat flooding fields — and the accompanying crop loss — as an inevitable reality in conversation.

The high potential for flooding in the area can put a unique strain on the parts department, according to Boyles. 

“It can change their harvesting practices and planting too,” Boyles says. “We can get flooded fields even when it doesn’t rain a lot in our area. If Northern Indiana gets a lot of rain, both our rivers will flood down this way. 

Alliance Tractor Boots on the Ground

“It’s something all of our guys watch because we have a lot of river-bottom farmers. If it gets really wet in the spring, that’s when we have a lot more breakdowns, so that can affect us. We must be prepared to have those parts that break down on a planter that normally would be fine if it wasn’t a wet spring.”

McCormick points out an example of the impact these floods can have near one of his fields. In 2009, he says, flooding covered the entire highway and flooded one of his nearby fields. 

“They had built this brand-new 4 lane highway, and in 2009, the river went over the top of it and flooded all this,” McCormick says, sweeping his hand over a wide swath of land to his left. “It was a record flood. Within less than a year, it broke the record by a foot and a half and went over top of it again, and we lost everything.”

Remote Service & Dedicated Techs

When asked about what’s new in the service department, Service Manager Roger Roberson immediately brings up the new service trucks, a pair of Ford F-750s. They’re part of a plan to extend Alliance’s reach farther south to cover a wider remote service area. He cites the trucks’ new cranes, now larger to complement the ever-growing size of equipment. 

The dealership has 4 techs who focus on remote service, with a 5th floater at the ready. Remote service currently comes with a flat $165 fee plus mileage.

As of Feb. 23, the store has already done around 20 planter inspections leading up to planting, for which they charge $500. 

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“McNeely talks with a dealer in Texas to help each other identify direction on parts trends…”

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“They say it’s going to be a dry spring, but if it is, we’ll probably be close to wrapping it up by May 1,” he says. “Or it could rain all April and then we may be done the 1st of June. You never know.”

The Vincennes shop has 14 dedicated large ag techs and 3 small ag techs. Although the small ag and rural lifestyle segment takes up a small part of the business, Seger says it’s crucial those customers don’t feel they play second fiddle to large ag customers when push comes to shove.

“We talk to our customers about this, because we don’t want them to be worried,” says Seger. “Say they buy a $20,000 small tractor from us, we don’t want them thinking, ‘OK, well if you have a $1 million combine that needs to be fixed, you’re never going to work on our tractor.’ We have an area of the shop devoted to mowers and small ag that’s separate from our large ag. 

“When rural lifestyle customers come in, I always reassure them that when you buy this machine, you’re totally separate from the ag side. If we get really busy in the spring and the fall, we don’t take those small ag technicians and shift them over to large ag. That way we can focus on our rural lifestyle customers too, so they don’t get lost in the shuffle.”

Sales Spring ‘Plan of Attack’

Boyles says the Vincennes store has a coordinated effort for moving used equipment this spring. Used planters and sprayers rank as particularly high priorities right now.

“We’ve been going through our older planter and sprayer stock numbers for this spring and generating customer lists through Deere programs,” he says. “We will go to that customer and say, ‘You haven’t traded planters or sprayers in a while, would you be interested?’ 

“We’ve been buying down the interest rate lower than what a standard rate is to generate movement in the planter and sprayer market. We’re also going through our planter inventory and seeing if they need any upgrades or repairs to make them more marketable.”

The store’s F-750 trucks are larger than what most ag dealers use and are closer to what CAT techs use to service mining equipment. Michaela Paukner

Walking through the used sprayers on the lot, Seger refers to the store’s inventories as “overly healthy.” He admits that by the second half of March, demand for sprayers and planters drops off, putting pressure on to move units.

The sales team has another goal: demoing then selling the store’s new See & Spray Ultimate unit. Seger walks us around it once it stops raining, pointing out the cameras and explaining the technology. He says Deere wants them to demo it 6 times before selling it. With the machine set up only a few days ago, the dealership already has one demo scheduled. 

“I’ve had a few customers asking about it,” Seger says. “It’s such new technology in particular, people are waiting for the early adopters to get it. The commercial applicators are showing interest.”

2024’s Upcoming Challenges

Seger predicts they’ll see a more conservative approach from customers on their big purchases over the next 6 months. This translates to the sales team needing to put in more effort.

“It’s going to be challenging because if we don’t see commodity prices rebound, we’re going to need to do a good job helping customers make selections with their limited resources,” says Seger. “We’ll be a little down on equipment sales this year unless commodity prices rebound.”

An upside to the sales challenges in the greater Vincennes area, however, comes from having a diversified customer base. Business from the dealership’s livestock and produce customers (this part of Indiana has a long history of growing melons) brings strong purchases, says Seger. Unlike some others in the Midwest, the Vincennes store doesn’t rely on one segment of grower to keep its lights on.

Learn More Online

For more on this visit to Alliance Tractor, head to www.Farm-Equipment.com/botg-alliance.

“We have a lot of customers growing white corn,” he says. “We have ethanol plants, and we have a lot of poultry feed mills. Compared to some other parts of the Corn Belt, we’re really strong here in this area.”

Boyles identifies simply getting farmers’ attention as another upcoming challenge. With the chaos of planting coming up, Boyles wants the sales team in growers’ cabs as they plant.

“Right now, we’re seeing a downward trend in equipment moving quickly,” says Boyles. “Even though a lot of farmers don’t want to talk about equipment right in the middle of springtime, I’m tasking my sales team to be in the tractor with them as much as possible. Keep trying to quote as much of our used inventory as we possibly can. We’re really trying to focus on driving our used inventory down dollar wise.”