In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we take a look at how the flooding in Texas will impact the ag industry and check in with some dealers in the region. In the Tech Corner, Noah Newman heads to the Flickner Innovation Farm in Moundridge, Kan., where John Deere dealer PrairieLand Partners is teaming up with local farmer Ray Flickner on a See & Spray Ultimate Trial. Also in this episode, Kubota Canada gets top scores from dealers in NAEDA’s annual Dealer-Manufacturer Relations survey and used combine inventories are trending sideways.

 

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TRANSCRIPT

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• Texas Floods Damage Crops, Livestock & Equipment
• Dealers on the Move
• Precision Specialist Says Smart Spraying Tech is Gaining Steam with Customers
• Tracking Crop Prices
• Kubota Canada Earns Top Rankings from Dealers
• U.S. Used Combine Inventories Trending Sideways
• DataPoint: No-till & Reduced Till Acres on the Rise

Texas Floods Damage Crops, Livestock & Equipment

While much of the focus in Texas currently is on rescuing storm victims, the agricultural industry is bracing for major difficulties, even though there hasn’t been much time to calculate the losses.

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told Fox News that in the 21-county area affected by the floods, hundreds of miles of fencing was lost, along with countless barns, outbuildings and other farm structures.

“To put this in perspective, in a 24-hour period enough water went down the river through Kerrville that would equal that amount of water that goes through Niagara Falls in a month and a half,” Miller told Fox News on Monday. “It was a 26-foot wall of water at 3 a.m. in the morning, and it caught everybody off guard.”

“We’ve lost farm-to-market roads, bridges and utilities, irrigation systems were wiped out, crops are under water, missing livestock, tractors under water, implements washed away.”

We also checked in with Shoppa’s Farm Supply, whose stores are well outside the flood area, but has suffered hurricane damage in the past, for some perspective. General Manager Eric Burrow told us the recovery is going to take a long time and right now all of the debris needs to be cleared manually while they continue the search for victims. 

Media reports said yield losses of up to 40% in lowland areas of the affected counties, and there will be more problems with waterlogged pastures and contaminated feed supplies that will stress cattle, poultry and swine operations. 

The Equipment Dealers Foundation (EDF), the charitable arm of the North American Equipment Dealers Assn. is prepared to assist dealership employees who may have been impacted by the recent disastrous flooding in Texas. NAEDA’s foundation created the disaster relief program following the devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

For more on donating to the fund or requesting assistance, visit equipmentdealersfoundation.org. 

Dealers on the Move 

This week’s Dealer on the Move is RDO Equipment. The John Deere dealership group is expanding its Aberdeen, S.D., location. The project will include a 23,000 square-foot shop addition, as well as a refreshed exterior.

Precision Specialist Says Smart Spraying Tech is Gaining Steam with Customers 

We’re headed to the Flickner Innovation Farm in Moundridge, Kan., where John Deere dealer PrairieLand Partners is teaming up with local farmer Ray Flickner on a See & Spray Ultimate Trial. 

Product Innovation Specialist Bryan Berggren is conducting the trial. He says smart spraying technology is gaining traction, with as many as 50 See & Spray units being used in his coverage area. That’s 30 more than last year and 46 more than 2 years ago. 

Berggren says a change in John Deere’s pricing structure could move the needle even further. 

“John Deere changed their strategy as far as the pricing structure. Right now, this season and moving forward, you’re only getting charged for the savings, which means you’re getting charged for the acres it does not spray. What that does is, is that gets the price way down to an acceptable price point. ”

“People want this technology, they want to be able to use this to save money on chemicals and to be responsible a little bit with what they’re doing with the land. Nobody wants to spray chemical all the time. This is gaining a lot of traction in the industry as a whole. There are lots of other companies developing this type of technology. Personally, I was very skeptical from the beginning because I ran a sprayer for 20-30 years and worked for some commercial applicators. It never ceases to amaze me how sensitive it is. It sees mor than we can see with our own eyes and even moving 12-15 mph through the field, recognizing a crop vs. a weed, it’s unbelievable.”

Berggren is also looking forward to testing Predictive Ground Speed Automation on the combine this fall at the Flickner Innovation Farm.

Tracking Crop Prices

As of July 9, corn prices were $3.99 down 11 cents from our last episode. Soybeans closed at $10.09, down 16 cents. And Wheat closed at $5.47, up 19 cents. 

Kubota Canada Earns Top Rankings from Dealers

The North American Equipment Dealers Assn.’s annual Dealer-Manufacturer Relations survey results are out, and Kubota Canada came out on top with the highest average mean score among full line manufacturers. 

Dealers are allowed to rate up to 7 manufacturers they carry and rank them based on their experience in 11 categories, including product quality, availability and technical support; parts availability, quality and return policy; communication; warranty and marketing/advertising support with a separate rating for overall satisfaction. Respondents rate manufacturers on a scale from 1-7, where 1 is “extremely dissatisfied” and 7 is “extremely satisfied.”

In addition to having the highest average mean score at 6.12, Kubota Canada had the highest score in all but once category — product availability — where it finished second behind Claas. Kubota Canada also so its scores improve over last year in all but one category — Product Technical Support.

Also notable in this year’s results, while New Holland had the lowest average mean score of the 7 main lines ranked at 4.38, it did show an improvement in all but one category. It also had the highest improvement in average mean score, up 4.5% over 2024. The one category in which New Holland saw its score drop was Marketing & Advertising Support, and it was down the most of all the main lines at a drop of 15.76%.

We’ll have more extensive coverage of the main line OEMs results in the July issue of Ag Equipment Intelligence and will break down the shortline manufacturer results in the September issue of Farm Equipment.

U.S. Used Combine Inventories Trending Sideways

Sandhills Global released its June market reports on July 7. Despite a 2.69% month-over-month decrease and a 6.48% year-over-year decrease in June, used combine inventories are trending sideways, according to the report. 

Asking prices on the other hand are trending upward, posting a modest month-over-month decline of 1.07% and a 0.04% year-over-year increase in June. 

Auction values decreased by 2.65% month-over-month, were up 6.78% year-over-year, and are trending up.

The EVI spread for used combines  increased to 44%, remaining lower than the peak values observed in 2015, Sandhills Global says. 

DataPoint: No-till & Reduced Till Acres on the Rise

This week’s DataPoint is brought to you by the Dealership Minds Summit, July 29-30. To learn more and register, visit DealershipMindsSummit.com. 

The share of acreage for major U.S. crops — wheat, corn, soybeans and cotton — managed using no-till and reduced till practices has increased over time, according to USDA. Survey responses from farmers show that no-till  and reduced till increased the most for wheat compared with corn, soybeans, and cotton.

Survey data also show that the share of acreage under no-till increased each survey year for corn but shares have leveled off for cotton and wheat and have been variable for soybeans.

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