News

Another slow month for equipment sales

Sales of large farm equipment remained very slow in January.

According to the latest report from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), only 109 four-wheel drive tractors and 205 combines were sold across the U.S. during the month.

But one industry official thinks the decline in equipment sales might be leveling off. Tom Junge is a field director with the Iowa Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association.

“A lot of our dealers said they had some year-end business and then some others said that, starting in January, they had some business,” Junge says. “We did our survey and our used equipment sales were only down like five percent compared to years past. So things are leveling out and more dealers are comfortable now selling new equipment.”

Brownfield spoke with Junge at the recent Iowa Power Farming Show.

Sales of two-wheel drive smaller tractors, those under 40 horsepower, continued to show strength, up 14 percent over January of 2016. But all other tractor categories in the AEM report were down from a year earlier.