In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we look at the potential impact Hurricanes Helene and Milton will have on ag production as well as the dealers and manufacturers in the impacted region. In the Technology Corner Noah Newman catches up with a Corn Belt farmer who's putting new precision technology to the test in his organic strip-till system. Also in this episode, a look at how dealers expect their farm customers to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election and how drought and high winds are combining to create an increased fire risk in the High Plains.

 

On the Record is brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors — the leading association in North America for the equipment distribution industry. Check out the upcoming 2025 AED Summit, the only industry event strictly dedicated to the equipment distribution industry, with 4 keynote speakers, over 40 industry specific education sessions, and over 200 exhibitors at www.aedsummit.com. Contact us at aedsummit@aednet.org for more information about how you can register for this event.

TRANSCRIPT

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• Hurricane Helene Impacts Ag Business
• Dealers on the Move
• Corn Belt Farmer Aims to Seed Cover Crops with 360 RAIN
• Drought Conditions Create Fire Risk in High Plains
• Dealers Weigh In on Upcoming Presidential Election
• DataPoint: Corn Stocks Growing, But at Lower Rate of Change

Hurricane Helene Impacts Ag Business 

With Hurricane Helene past us — and Hurricane Milton making landfall this week— a report from the Farm Bureau shows nearly 100,000 farms operate in the affected counties. 

And, $14.8 billion in crop and livestock production is generated in the affected countries. 

Beyond just the farms being impacted, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida have 114 ag implement manufacturing companies among them, according to North American Industry Classification System data. 

And, Ag Equipment Intelligence data shows there are 259 farm equipment dealership locations in those states as well. 

While it’s not clear yet just what the extent of the agricultural losses are, if just one third of this output were lost, agricultural damages could reach nearly $5 billion, and that doesn’t include damage and losses to the manufacturers and dealerships that are impacted. 

Dealers on the Move

This week’s Dealers on the Move include Redline Equipment and Equipment Ontario.

Case IH dealer Redline Equipment agreed to acquire Wells Equipment Sales in Litchfield, Mich. The Litchfield store will be Redline’s 3rd location in Michigan and 13th overall. 

Case IH and JCB dealer Equipment Ontario opened a new location in Alliston, Ontario. This is the dealership’s 6th location. 

Corn Belt Farmer Aims to Seed Cover Crops with 360 RAIN

Every now and then on Technology Corner we like to spotlight farmers who are using some of the precision technology we cover on the program. Today we’re catching up with southern Iowa farmer Mark Dobson, who’s using the 360 RAIN autonomous irrigation and nutrient application system for the first time in his organic strip-till operation. 

“I’m doing part of my nutrients with it now. That kind of changes my organic world and I think in the future I will be able to seed cover crops with it during the season, so all my crops will have something growing when I’m done.”

“I did not get mine into the field until late this year, so I did not get to run it all season, but I did get to make some manure passes on my organic corn and it’s kind of incredible to be able to have access to your field from the time you plant it until harvest with not just water but nutrients. It’s going to make the research part of my head spin because there’s so many different things that I want to try and do with that I don’t know where the end of that is or isn’t.” 

Dobson farms about 420 organic soybean, corn and wheat acres. He’s also a custom strip-tiller. We’ll check back in with him next growing season to see how it’s going with 360 Rain.

Drought Conditions Create Fire Risk in High Plains

While dealers, farmers and residents in the southeast begin the recovery process from damages from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, dealers and farmers in the High Plains are dealing with a completely different challenge.

Drought conditions paired with high winds are causing an increased fire threat.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the majority of the High Plains are in some level of drought. In Nebraska, 37% of corn production is being affected by severe drought as of Oct. 8. When you look at spring wheat, 100% of production is being affected by severe drought. 

Greg Meints, sales manager for AGCO dealer Wells Implement in Plymouth, Neb., and a volunteer firefighter, says last Saturday parts of Nebraska saw a number of good size fires that were hard to stop because of the high winds. The best way to combat the fires is tillage, he says, but in an area with a large no-till adoption that isn’t always a welcome solution. 

He says as a preventative measure, discs were being placed near fields to have on hand should a fire spark. He’s also heard of some farmers attaching sprayer tanks and pumps to their grain carts to have water at the ready and close to the combine in case of a fire. 

Meints says temperatures are expected to drop to the 60s in the next week, which should help reduce the risk of fire. 

Dealers Weigh In on Upcoming Presidential Election

Throughout Lessiter Media’s coverage of ag practices dating back to 1972, it is our sense that our farm subscribers have become increasingly conservative since the early 1980s. 

To gauge where that farm customers stand today, a Farm Equipment Insider text poll asked dealers what percent of their voting U.S. farm customer base do they estimate — as their dealer — will vote with the GOP come November? 

The clear majority said 75% of their customers will vote Republican in the upcoming presidential election.

DataPoint: Corn Stocks Growing, But at Lower Rate of Change 

This week’s DataPoint is brought to you by the 2025 Ag Equipment Intelligence Executive Briefing.

According to farmdoc daily from the University of Illinois, September corn stocks are shown relative to levels for the past 25 years. Stocks are growing but the rate of change is less than observed during rising stocks periods like 2005 and 2014. Joe Janzen, author of the report, says “the historic comparison to the 2013-2015 build is apt as current expectations are for a second year of growing corn ending stocks in 2025. While the pace of growth in stocks is now anticipated to be slower than observed between 2013 and 2015, the overall change looks markedly similar and inventory growth at that time did usher in a sustained period of lower prices.”

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