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Equipment dealers hope for better year in 2017

Sales of farm equipment have been lagging for the past couple of years, but there seems to be a bit more optimism heading into 2017.

Tom Junge of the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association says this fall’s excellent crop yields have improved the outlook.

“Generally, there’s some optimism that maybe we’ve hit our low and we’re going to be bouncing back,” Junge says. “There’s been some good activity after harvest because a lot of people had better-than-expected crops. So the bushels are going to help offset some of that lower commodity price.”

Equipment dealer Steve Kayton with Nebraska Equipment Inc. of Seward, Nebraska says sales of big ticket items are still slow.

“It seems like anything under 50-thousand, we’re getting a lot of interest in. But once you get over that 50-thousand dollar mark, people are kind of thinking about it,” Kayton says.

Kayton says one of the challenges is the large number of equipment auctions in the country.

“There are so many auctions out there. People come in and price a lot of things, but then they wait for that auction,” he says.  “It’s tough to compete against the auctions.”

But Kayton says their parts and service business has been excellent.

Brownfield spoke with Junge and Kayton at the Nebraska Power Farming Show in Lincoln.

AUDIO: Tom Junge

 

AUDIO: Steve Kayton