China’s need for agricultural imports remains significant since they are faced with providing food for nearly one-third of the world’s population. The past decade has produced a growing middle class in China that has demonstrated an increased demand for not only basic foods, but also for high quality products that are only available from other parts of the world.
The strength of the U.S. economy continues to provide support for the smaller tractor sales but the recent declines in the stock markets will have a sobering effect upon some future purchases.
Looking back, 2017 will most likely be viewed as the turning point in agricultural equipment sales for this cycle. While there will probably remain some weakness in the larger tractors and combines in 2018, there are definite signs of a bottom developing.
Our models track commodity prices, international currency exchange rates, total number of farms, total number of farms by gross production value. Here is our 2018 U.S. forecast and the rationale of how we arrived at those numbers.
2017 continues to appear to be a base-building period and, while large tractors are woefully below our original forecast, there is some evidence that they won’t go much lower in 2018.
Farm equipment sales history is replete with hills and valleys and we certainly are in a valley now. Traditionally, the range between the hilltop and the valley floor is about 20% in terms of unit sales.
Built on 90 years of expertise, Yetter Farm Equipment leads the agriculture industry in designing effective and innovative equipment for residue management, seedbed preparation, precision fertilizer placement, harvest attachments, strip-tillage, and more.
Montag is the industry’s innovative leader for precise, accurate metering of fertilizer, seed and other nutrients. The Montag system has become the standard for deep banding of fertilizer. Montag is also pioneering the technology for cover crop seed application. The new Cover Crop+ is able to meter the smallest seed, and can be mounted to tillage implements, combines, plus Hagie sprayers and detasselers.
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