In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we take a look at dealer consolidation has impacting the number of big dealers in 2025. In the Technology Corner, John Preheim, head of precision and electronics product development for CNH, shares CNH’s precision vision. Also in this episode, Pinion’s Marc Johnson provides a mid-year update on the ag equipment market and Leah Anderson with Farm Credit Canada provides details on how shipping fees on vessels built or operated by China could impact Canada.

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TRANSCRIPT

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Kubota Big Dealers Increase, Total Big Dealers Drops

The number of big dealers in North America dropped for the third year in a row in 2025 as consolidation continues to impact the ag equipment industry. After rising to a record high of 214 big dealers (dealers with 5 or more ag locations) in 2022, the industry now has 205 dealers with 5 or more ag equipment locations. Also for the second year in a row, the total number of ag equipment stores owned by big dealers increased to 2,739.

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Deere once again has the most big dealers at 79, but that is down once again from the previous year. In 2024, the number of Deere big dealers dropped to 82 from 86 in 2023 and 90 in 2022. The number of AGCO dealers dropped again as well, now at 20 big AGCO dealers vs. 22 in 2024 and 23 in 2023. Case IH and New Holland each saw their big dealers grow. Case IH now has 42 big dealers vs. 41 in 2024 and New Holland jumped up to 30 from 27 in 2024. 

After declining to 29 big dealers last year, Kubota saw an increase in 2025 and now has 36 big dealers. “Other” big dealers, which includes company-owned and shortline-only dealerships, declined from 21 last year to 16 this year, which includes 11 Claas big dealers. 

The growth in Kubota big dealers was somewhat surprising given Kubota’s policy that caps the number of stores any Kubota dealer can own per state, which was announced last May. Kubota’s May 2024 memo explained that dealer store locations would be capped starting at 6 in states with 10 or fewer Kubota locations up to 25 stores per ownership group in states with 51 or more Kubota stores. Nationally, the number of Kubota locations any one ownership group can own is now 50. 

Currently, there are 7 Kubota dealers that operate 10 or more stores. Under this policy, Ewald Kubota could still add 5 more stores, as data from 2024 shows there were 87 Kubota locations in Texas. 

“With limiting by number of by state and just their desire to be perceived as being close to the customer and not having this big dealer feel, which is their brand identity. It is interesting looking at the numbers to see that they are getting scale with certain dealers,” noted George Russell, , founding member of the Machinery Advisors Consortium, who  has been consulting on the Big Dealer Report since 2011.”

Dealers on the Move 

This week’s Dealers on the Move include Claas FarmPoint and Wade Inc. 

Claas FarmPoint opened a new temporary location in Buffalo, N.D., while a permanent facility is being built in the Jamestown area, as well as a second location in Devils Lake, which is scheduled to open ahead of 2025 harvest season. 

Mississippi-based John Deere dealer Wade Inc. has acquired Indiana Deere dealer Reynolds Farm Equipment. The combined operation has 19 locations, but the Indiana stores will continue to operate under the Reynolds name. 

CNH Reflects on Raven Acquisition, Shares Precision Vision  

CNH remains focused on delivering practical precision solutions to farmers almost 4 years after acquiring Raven. Our Mike Lessiter caught up with John Preheim, head of precision and electronics product development for CNH, and asked him if there’s anything dealers still don’t fully know about the significance of the acquisition as they take new technology to customers.   

“We haven’t fully realized the integration of the technology between what was historically CNH and what was historically Raven. It’s not that they (dealers) don’t know because they haven’t been educated, they don’t know because they really haven’t seen it all yet. Some of it has been introduced obviously on sprayers, we’ve been together for years between CNH and Raven. As we start looking at the broader portfolio over the next 3 years, I think you’re going to see a lot of streamlining and a significantly improved user experience. Anywhere from how you order to how you provision equipment to how you actually use it in the cab to how you can create more efficiency through better pre-planning. If you look back at some of what Raven worked on as part of the ag retail business, there was a lot of focus on how we optimize the efficiency of farmers’ operations. A lot of that will be getting carried through to farmers on other equipment as we go forward too.”

Preheim says the conservation of crop protection inputs is a huge area of focus right now as farmers aim to “do more with less.” The company recently announced several emerging sense and act products, including Case IH SenseApply Technology, New Holland IntelliSense Sprayer Automation and Raven Augmenta Field Analyzer.

Tracking Crop Prices 

As of May 21, corn prices were $4.38 down 23 cents from our last episode. Soybeans closed at $10.50, down 12 cents. And Wheat closed at $5.34, down 15 cents. 

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Tracking the Big Beautiful Bill’s Impact on Equipment Dealers

During Ag Equipment Intelligence’s Executive Briefing Mid-Year Review June 5, Pinion’s Marc Johnson provided an economic update, during which he highlighted how the Big Beautiful Bill will benefit U.S. equipment dealers. Some of those benefits include the estate tax provision, Section 199A and Bonus Depreciation. 

“You see things like Make America Families Thrive Again, make a Rural American Main Street Grow Again. There's definitely some political football stomping in the end zone kind of thing here as this bill goes through. The good news is it's past the House. We got just about everything in it that we would've wanted as equipment dealers. The estate tax provision comes back to about $15 million per person adjusted for inflation. That starts next year, and they want that to be permanent.”

“The Section 199A that gets pass-through companies down to the same tax rate or closer to the same tax rate as C corporations pay, that's reinstated. In fact, it's gone up to 23% instead of 20%. That's great news. Bonus depreciation also comes back 100% if they bought it after Trump was elected. Kind of a funny notion there that if they bought it between January 1st and January 19th, it doesn't count, but if they bought it January 20th or after, we get 100% bonus depreciation.”

“As auditors, we're joking that you guys are going to get a lot of people coming back in and asking to redo their invoice. Just say January 20th instead of January 12th. Basically, we got about everything we wanted. You kind of look through this thing, our individual rates are back down where we want. Standard deductions are up high. The one complicated thing is the state and local tax deduction. We do get a better deduction now. It goes from 10,000 bucks a year to 30,000 bucks a year.”

“To pay for that, those of you that have gone through a lot of work with your accountants to do what's called a pass-through into the election, where the company is paying the tax for the shareholder, those mechanisms aren't going to be allowed anymore. We did a lot of work to get a deduction for a couple of years. There's a lot of people right now passing out letters that you can sign up to send to your senator to say, "Hey, don't do what the House did. We don't like that. We need the pass-through into the deduction. We need to be able to deduct our taxes."

“Anyway, stay tuned. The House, like I said, they have passed it. The Senate will eventually pass something. We're told that'll be before July 4th, but I doubt that. They're not seeing that the Senate is starting to have a lot of talk about maybe making some changes. We got people that are loyal to the president that are starting to backtrack on that, and so we're seeing a little bit of give. I think we'll still see a tax bill passed, but I don't think it's going to be by July 4th. It'll probably be more like by the end of August.”

For Johnson’s full presentation along with a Q&A discussion with New Holland North America VP Ryan Schaefer, retired President of Oxbo Forage Division Craig Harthoorn and H&R Agri-Power President Steve Hunt, watch the full Mid-Year Review on the Farm Equipment website. 

Changing U.S. Trade Policy Impacting Canadian Ag Imports & Exports 

Over the past year, freight rates responded unevenly to global trade disruptions, says Leigh Anderson, senior economist with Farm Credit Canada. In a recent FCC report Anderson said container shipping rates have shown high sensitivity to trade policy shifts and consumer demand, while dry bulk freight rates have remained more stable, driven by consistent, commodity-specific demand such as agricultural products.

He says, quote: 

“Canada’s agriculture sector is deeply integrated into global trade, with both the U.S. and China playing pivotal roles. The U.S. serves as a benchmark for agricultural pricing; soybeans are the perfect example since China is the world’s largest buyer, usually making up more than 60% of global imports. So, when China changes how much it buys from the U.S., it affects the prices of Canadian oilseeds. If China decides to buy more from South America, demand for U.S. soybeans will drop and could lead to lower prices.”

Anderson says one factor that has been overshadowed by broader tariffs is a new U.S. policy that was announced in April that imposes shipping fees on vessels built or operated by China. 

These fees, currently set at zero, are scheduled to increase starting in October 2025 and are expected to further disrupt global supply chains, he says. The fees vary by vessel type.

Cargo ships will be charged USD$50 per tonne, while container ships will pay either USD$18 per tonne or USD$120 per container, whichever is higher. 

Anderson uses this example: A 70,000-tonne Panamax vessel, which is the most common for U.S. grain shipments, could face fees of up to USD$3.5 million per visit to a U.S. port.  

In the short term, Anderson says, the fees will raise shipping costs, leading to higher prices for imported goods including the ever-important December holiday season. Overall, it will reduce competitiveness for U.S. exporters, especially in agriculture as increased freight costs are passed on to U.S. farmers through lower farm-gate prices.  

He adds that the timing of the fees on Chinese vessels is significant, coinciding with peak U.S. soybean export season. 

He concludes saying, 

“So, the new fees are expected to disrupt shipments during the busiest months, likely leading to further declines in new crop soybean sales.  

“From Canada’s perspective, this could be an advantage for both bulk grain and containerized agri-food exports. Ships may reroute to Canadian ports to avoid U.S. fees, potentially boosting Canadian export demand and competitiveness.”

DataPoint: Over 20% of Case IH Dealers Projecting Self-Propelled Sprayer Sales Growth 

This week’s DataPoint is brought to you by the Dealership Minds Summit. Early bird savings end June 18. To view the program and register visit DealershipMindsSummit.com.


According to the 2025 Dealer Business Outlook & Trends Report, over two-thirds of Case IH dealers forecast their self-propelled sprayer unit sales to be as good or better than 2024. This breaks down to 3.6% who expect sales to be up 8% or more and 17.9% who expect an increase of 2-7%. Nearly half of Case IH dealers expect flat sales, while a quarter of red dealers expect sales for self-propelled sprayers to be down 8% or more. 

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