News

AEM reports strong February combine & tractor sales

2021 agricultural tractor and combine sales in the U.S. and Canada are stronger than in recent years.  Curt Blades with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers tells Brownfield the big jump was in self-propelled combines, which were up almost 77% in February over a year ago. “The economics point to maybe it’s time to invest in a new combine. The other thing that I always like to point out is that there is some pretty awesome new technology out there in the combining space. It’s new models, new technologies that farmers are getting excited about and want to take advantage of.”

Blades says it is unusual to see strong sales activity at this time of the year. “There is some seasonality in tractor and combine sales, but boy, I like to see strength in February which is typically one of the slower months.”

The AEM says tractor sales jumped more than 24% in February with more units sold in every category.  Blades says the sale of two-wheel drive tractors under 40 horsepower is still the biggest seller, with just over 11-thousand units sold in February compared to almost 75-hundred units a year ago.  Sales of tractors between 40-100 horsepower, and above 100 horsepower combined were less than half of the under 40 class, which Blades attributes to property owners that are not farming.