In the lead up to the Western Australian harvest, farm machinery dealerships pre-planned to try to overcome anticipated supply chain delays. Their efforts appear to have paid off in that farmer-customers reported a record 20-million-plus tonne harvest, reports Mal Gill at Farm Weekly.

The rush to get machinery onto dealer lots as quickly as possible has overbooked haulers. As a result, manufacturers sometimes have to use different shipping companies, and machinery is getting damaged while in transit.

Nearly 360,000 tractors and combines left dealer lots in 2021 in North America, reported the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) over the weekend. United States and Canadian unit sales of ag tractors and combines finished 2021 with gains over 10% in nearly every segment in both countries.

As COVID cases and its complications continue, the U.S. economy continues to thrive, according to a new quarterly report from CoBank's Knowledge Exchange. Workers are steadily returning to the labor force and consumers are still spending confidently.

For 2022, the Purdue Agricultural Economics Report released on Jan. 13 cited inflation and COVID-19 uncertainty as key issues impacting food prices, general economy performance, farm costs and returns, farm financials and household economics.