Having been in the ag business since 1975, I have seen so much change I really don’t know where to start — from the consolidation of family farms to now large corporate enterprises, which necessitated the consolidation of the ag dealerships.

Certainly technology has played the largest role in determining the look of a farming operation today. Not any different than our grandfathers going from horse-drawn implements to a mechanized operation, the changes to tillage and seeding practices, large equipment, seed varieties allowing the expansion of growing many crops in parts of the world — all have allowed ag to continue to feed a growing world population.

The farm customer is much more educated as well as the dealership personnel. I can remember back in 1975 when having a degree or a journeyman certification was not important, and many dealers simply would say it made no difference. Today that no longer holds true. Hiring good staff is becoming increasingly difficult, and constant training is now a must.

The manufacturers have changed their focus from being customer-driven and focused to more shareholder-driven and focused, as they also have amalgamated and have become much larger. Manufacturer contracts today are much more complex, demanding and often felt to be very one-sided compared to the good old days when a hand shake was as good as any contract, whether it be with a customer purchasing equipment or something a manufacturer agreed to do.

Manufacturing has become more of a design approach with less and less being built by the OEM, and rather components sourced worldwide and bolted together.

Food security is becoming once again a bigger concern for many countries, as it often does when the world faces the politics and threats as we have seen during the great wars and seeing more of again. Ag dealerships are no different than farming operations in that the average entrepreneur can simply start from scratch with limited financial resources. What we see now is the generational effect or a simple sell-off to another large corporate enterprise.

Ag has become indescribably complex, but in the end we do what we can to feed the world, and farmers, dealers and manufacturers have continued to adapt and will continue to do so regardless of the business challenges they may face. 

As for Farm Equipment, my mile-high view is likely much the same as most.

Regarding how Farm Equipment magazine has impacted business, two things come to mind. First is the great source of information for managers and staff to see how things are done in other locations, parts of North America and departments.

Second is the informative daily news emails where I find news on a subject that our OEMs are still not aware of and often news within their own organization. The coverage of the restructuring of CNHI and Sergio Marchionne’ s attempts to low-ball offer to buy existing company shares and the more recent coverage of the CNH strike, where we could get nothing from CNH. Often your reports brought information we were not hearing. 

Keep up the good work.