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MachineryLink provides potential online revenue stream to farmers

A company that leases farm equipment is giving farmers an opportunity to make money through a shared economy.

MachineryLink vice president Ben Dye says their 16 year old combine-leasing business has evolved.

“We’ve been watching what’s been going on with the shared economy in other sectors, and we started to see that there was a real opportunity for farmers to actually make money off their own equipment.”

Since its launch in October, more than 1,000 growers nationwide have joined MachineryLink Sharing, which now features tens of millions of dollars-worth of equipment.

Dye tells Brownfield for farmers pinched by the downturn in commodity prices, the website gives them another potential revenue stream.

“They’re able to put equipment that would otherwise be sitting idle onto our marketplace and share that with other farmers.”

Owners of equipment can set up a free profile at machinery link dot com and create a listing for any piece of machinery that isn’t being used 100 percent of the time.

Dye says MachineryLink handles transportation and logistics, invoicing, customer service and dispute resolution.