One of the biggest viral stories in the ag machinery dealer world, though not a good one as far as most industry stakeholders are concerned, transpired at the end of August. During a conference-room meeting at John Deere dealer group AHW LLC, Illinois farmer Jake Lieb went public about AHW’s decision to cancel his multi-unit order with the John Deere dealer group. Lieb claims the 18-store dealer group ripped up his multi-unit trade deal inked 2 months ago, citing downward trends in the used equipment market as the cause.

Within days, Liebe’s 71-second video was viewed 1.2 million times. Not since the right to repair uproar has there been such a division in ag machinery, with farmers, dealers and analysts taking sides.

AHW is an 18-store John Deere dealer group that employs 550. According to the 2024 update to Farm Equipment’s Dealer 100™ list, AHW is the 44th-largest dealer group in North America.

Farm Equipment editor Mike Lessiter has been following the story and spoke to the 5th generation farmer in early September about the video from the AHW boardroom and the subsequent commentary and media coverage that has gone industrywide. Lessiter reached out to AHW management on 3 occasions but no calls have been returned to date.

“We've just been informed that a deal we made 2 months ago to trade equipment is no longer being honored by AHW because some things have changed in the used equipment market.” says Lieb, who runs a progressive corn and soybean operation with his brother Josh. The farm is in its 5th generation of family ownership.

Lieb never had any issue with the local store. In the video, he says, “Now, AHW has close to 20 stores, and I guess they think they're too big to care about honoring deals, which we've got on paper. They're saying they're not going to honor it … that the P.O. is worthless anyway. So, if you, the farmer, have a P.O. and with grain prices being down you feel bad about the agreement you've made, I'd encourage you to just back out of it,” he says, also pointing his fellow farmers to 2 other Deere dealers he mentions by name.

You can read Farm Equipment’s coverage from September 5 on the matter, as well as a just-updated part here.

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