Economic challenges spark repairs

Volatile grain markets have been leading many farmers to repair their equipment instead of buying newer machinery.

U.S. sales of combines fell 43.7% while total agricultural tractor sales fell 4.9% in July 2025 compared to 2024, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers reported Aug. 14.

And U.S. sales of tractors in all classes dropped 11.3% in December 2024 compared to the same time the year before.

“December’s sales of ag tractors and combines follow patterns we saw throughout 2024 which reflect softness in the market,” Curt Blades, senior vice president at AEM, said in January.

Shares of Deere & Co. tumbled the most in over three years as the farm machinery maker pared its full-year earnings outlook with lower grain prices curbing farmers’ spending, according to Bloomberg.

“Customers remain cautious amid ongoing uncertainty,” Deere said in a statement Aug. 14 as the company announced third-quarter earnings.

“We currently have more uncertainty than ever in the North American ag market, which translates to the broadest range of outcomes for a following year than we’ve had in a long time,” Cory Reed, president of worldwide agriculture and turf division for production and precision, said Aug. 14 on a call with investors.

Farmers have been cautious with their spending this year.

“Tariff uncertainty and deflated commodity prices have made farmers increasingly cautious in spending decisions and more hesitant to accept higher machinery prices,” CFRA Research equity analyst Jonathan Sakraida said in a note reported by Bloomberg.

Deere said tariffs such as those on steel and aluminum ate into profits in segments for small agriculture and turf, as well as construction and forestry. The company estimated tariff costs for the fiscal year at $600 million, up from a previous estimate of $500 million.

It also said prices for some model 2026 machines will go up by 2% to 4% even as Deere looks to minimize cost increases. Rivals CNH Industrial NV and AGCO Corp. recently warned that levies will raise prices for machinery.

Deere and other equipment makers have been reducing output as part of efforts to bring down inventory. Companies are also offering new technology that’s helping farmers autonomously work fields.

“By proactively managing inventory, we’ve matched production to retail demand, enabling our company and dealers to respond swiftly to market shifts and customer needs,” Deere Chief Executive Officer John May said in the statement.

But the need for reliable farm machinery still exists in a down market. A 2023 report released by U.S. PIRG Education Fund estimated U.S. farmers lose $3 billion to tractor downtime.

Steve Carls, owner of Flanagan Implement in central Illinois, said prospective customers are looking at making repairs more often than buying new equipment.

Some repairs would have led to more trade-ins in the past, Carls said. On the other hand, the equipment sometimes is still new enough that it is more cost efficient to replace with parts rather than a new tractor, combine, planter or bin.

“It seemed like we were really busy on repairs clear through spring. In summer, we run off a list of customers because they might be having trouble bringing it in a timely fashion or we’re backed up at a moment,” he said. “I don’t know if it has something more also to do with where they are at in this point of the season, so we’ll see them between now and before harvest.”

Repair business remains good at Rogers Ag Repair in Fairfield, Iowa, owner Curt Rogers said.

“We’ll work on a little bit of everything, from New Holland, Challenger, Radco, Kubota, John Deere, Ford, Oliver, Gleanor and even a new Massey Ferguson combine recently. We like variety and because of that it keeps work interesting and we keep learning,” Rogers said.

Consequently, customers gain from having more knowledgeable service techs working on their equipment, he added.

“I would say for us, business is pretty solid. We don’t have near the amount of new sales happening, but we’re very busy with repairs and replacing gearing heads often,” Rogers said. “Customers are a little slower to spend their money right now and want to make it last longer until grain prices go up.”

Additional reporting by Michael Hirtzer with Bloomberg News.