2021 was uncharted territory that brought one surprise after another! 
Dealing with shortages, delays and uncertainty became the norm for dealers, customers and manufacturers. In addition, interim price increases, steel surcharges and freight increases made the equipment market a challenging place to navigate.

“We sell tractors. We fix them. We collect the money.”
This was the insight I received from a seasoned iron peddler upon my first visit to an equipment dealership more than 20 years ago. Simple and action-oriented, his statement summed up the fundamentals of equipment distribution.

OEMs have asked the American Petroleum Institute for new diesel engine oil standards to go with hardware they are developing to meet stringent new 2027 carbon emission and fuel economy requirements.

Farm Equipment's Best of the Web: Week of January 28, 2022 features a movie review, “Percy Vs. Goliath & Our Industry’s Connection.” We got around to the long-awaited viewing of the film, Percy vs. Goliath on Amazon about the famous legal battle of Percy Schmeiser against Monsanto.

Almost 8 years ago, as we were test-driving a singular themed concept for the 2nd Dealership Minds Summit — The Next Generation — the editors of Farm Equipment interviewed 8 up- and-coming dealership leaders who were being groomed to run the business.

A little over a week ago, I received an email from a lawyer who had reached out to me in the past looking for some information about the farm equipment industry. He was passing along the antitrust suit that was filed against Deere in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Dialog on “on-average” marketing spending led Farm Equipment to dust off its own survey data of farm equipment dealers from 2018. 

Significant increases in productivity sometimes come in unexpected and obscure innovations. Case in point: Danfoss Power Solutions’ new MultiAxis-Steer in use on farms across Europe.

On November 22, 2021, I interviewed Tony LaPorta on the Moving Iron Podcast. Tony is a trader and brought up some excellent points during the interview. What made me think the most was his point about the cost of uncertainty and how the various markets are reacting.