--------------------------------------------------- Tractor shortage looms as crop prices soar Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen
By Ben Sutherly
Staff Writer
Friday, November 23, 2007
Higher prices for farmers' corn and soybeans are contributing to record profits for tractor and combine manufacturers and better business for local farm-machinery dealers.
Business is so swift that new tractors and combines are in short supply at some dealerships.
"We're facing being sold out," said John Stoltz, a salesman for JD Equipment near London, whose sales territory includes Clark and Champaign counties.
JD Equipment, which sells John Deere, also has four other Ohio dealerships, including one in Wilmington.
Stoltz said JD Equipment called farmers this month to notify them of a looming shortage of large tractors, combines and other harvesting products. The dealership managed to lock in orders for customers early on, but can't make promises "from here on out," Stoltz said.
Stoltz said he hasn't seen such a shortage in his eight years with JD Equipment.
Deere & Co. of Moline, Ill., the maker of John Deere farm equipment, reported record earnings this week and forecast sales of farm machinery in the United States and Canada to be up 10 percent to 15 percent industrywide in 2008 "due in part to a substantial jump in farm cash receipts."
Farm machinery maker Case New Holland said big tractor and combine sales should be up 5 percent to 10 percent this year versus last year.
It wasn't clear how much of those higher sales figures can be attributed to more machinery being sold, and how much can be attributed to higher prices. But the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, whose forecasts are expressed in unit sales, predicted a 3.8 percent increase in U.S. combine sales in 2008, and a 6.5 percent increase in U.S. sales of four-wheel-drive tractors.
At Twin Valley Equipment on U.S. 35 near Eaton, owner Jay Unger said interest in tractors, combines and tillage equipment is up significantly.
"They're getting more interested in some of the bigger ticket items that they've been putting off (buying) before," Unger said.
Even Dale Vonderhaar, co-owner of Steinke Tractor Sales on Eaton's south side, had reason for optimism, despite some local drought conditions this growing season that "killed morale" among farmers.
With high soybean and corn prices, "I look for it to be a pretty positive winter," Vonderhaar said. "I think we'll have a great '08."
