In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we talk with NAEDA Director of Dealer Development Tom Healy about some of the dealer-manufacturer relations issues the association has tackled this year. In the Technology Corner, Noah Newman visits with Greeneye Technology’s first U.S. dealer, Cody Boeck. Also in this episode, USDA resumes some aid programs during the government shutdown and we check in with Topcon on their outlook for for the precision ag market.

   Associated Equipment Distributors

This episode of On the Record is brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors — the leading association in North America for the equipment distribution industry.  Don’t miss the 2026 AED Summit – January 19–21 in Dallas, TX!

This is the premier event built exclusively for the equipment distribution industry. For three action-packed days, thousands of industry leaders come together to connect, collaborate, and unlock new opportunities. Discover hundreds of manufacturers actively seeking distribution and service partners across every area of dealership operations—from financing and software to insurance and beyond. It’s the only event designed by and for equipment dealers that has over 40 education sessions, 4 thought leadership keynote speakers, and over 200 exhibitors to meet with to shape the future of your business — and it’s your chance to be at the center of it all.  

Learn more and register today at www.aedsummit.com. Interested in discounted registration options? Contact [email protected] to discover how you can get reduced registration rates to attend this event.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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NAEDA Examines Dealer Agreements

We caught up with Tom Healy, director of dealer development with the North American Equipment Dealers Association, during the association’s Equipment Dealers Foundation Clay Shoot outing in Wisconsin. The foundation provides scholarships to students pursuing a degree or technical certificate within the equipment industry.

Healy stressed that the advocacy work the association does on behalf of dealers is a key part of what NAEDA does, both in terms of manufacturer issues and concerns and government affairs. He says NAEDA set some foundational groundwork this past year with dealer protections. 

“The big ones this last year have really been in the manufacturing side. We've had several manufacturers come forward and, in their dealer agreements, have had verbiage in there written that would really compromise the dealer's ability to operate. Some of the big ones were the right of first refusal, really taking away the dealership's ability to decide where that succession of that dealership goes, whether it's a family member, or it's an ESOP, or it's a private deal. When you have a manufacturer that has the ability to overbear on you that much where they can intervene and take that ability for you to retail that dealership somewhere else, that's a huge problem for our dealers and what we saw as a massive overreach.”

“So we worked with the manufacturers on backing that verbiage out of there. The success in that is stopping the first one from doing it is what stopped all of the rest from doing it.”

NAEDA also worked with manufacturers on territories and market share expectations. 

“When we get into that territory of protection, manufacturers expect our dealers to grow and we support that. We do support that dealers should have objectives to try to reach a growth every year in every one of their departments, but there has to be some reality that comes with it.”

“This part in this clause that was put into the dealer agreement was really stating that the manufacturer has the ability to adjust and set your market share expectations, but also gives them the ability to install other dealers inside of your territory or area of responsibility without that impacting your expectations. If you're running a dealership and you don't have a dealer within 60 miles of you, then yeah, you know what your industry supports and what kind of market share growth you can obtain. If you have another dealer placed 10 miles from you, that's going to cut into your business, and the manufacturer has no right to maintain those expectations from market share.”

Look for more from our interview with Healy on Farm-Equipment.com. 

Dealers on the Move

This week’s Dealer on the Move is Martin Tractor. The John Deere construction and forestry dealer has completed construction on its new Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility. The 21,500-square-foot location more than doubles the size of their previous space and is designed to provide faster service, greater capacity and an improved customer experience. 

In January, Martin’s farm equipment stores merged with Heritage Tractor. 

Tracking Crop Prices 

As of October 22, corn prices were $4.23, up 4 cents from our last episode. Soybeans closed at $10.34, up 12 cents. And wheat closed at $5.03, down 3 cents.  

Corn Belt Dealer Shares Top Traits of Tech Worth Selling & Supporting

Exeter, Neb.-based Boeck Farm Outfitters became the first dealer in the U.S. to sell and service Greeneye Technology for sprayers in late 2024. I caught up with their fearless leader, Cody Boeck a few weeks ago, and asked him about how he identifies new products to sell, and what gave him the confidence that Greeneye was a good fit for his dealership.

“We started our business in the planter space. And we saw planters go from dumb machines to electrically driven smart machines, and the next machine to be able to do that is the sprayer. We saw this technology and met with the guys who developed it. They’re a great group of guys with a great vision. It’s great technology, and so the combination of the people and the technology and where we think the sprayer space is going, it was a no-brainer for us.”

“What’s fun to see as this grows is just different geographies now adopting this technology. Every corner of the Corn Belt is completely different in how they manage things, what they spray with, their weed issues. Hearing stories about how people manage things in different corners of the Corn Belt and the success stories coming out of this is fun to see.”

Boeck says one of the keys to selling new technology is selling your team on it before selling your customers on it. Have a strategy in place to show your staff the benefits of change and how it helps elevate the dealership.

USDA to Resume Farmer Aid Programs During Shutdown

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the USDA would begin resuming some programs despite the government shutdown that has frozen agricultural support services across the U.S.

In a post on X, Rollins said the USDA will re-open county offices and resume Farm Service Agency core operations, including critical services for farm loan processing, ARC/PLC payments and other programs. This represents over $3 billion in assistance that farmers counted on in their business planning decisions, Rollins said.

The Wall Street Journal reported the $3 billion in aid comes from money in the Commodity Credit Corp., created in 1933 to stabilize farm incomes.

Rollins has hinted that additional bailout funding is being discussed, although it wouldn’t be available until the government re-opens. WSJ reported the administration is discussing a bailout of more than $10 billion, but reopening offices and programs allows farmers to access available funding in the meantime.

Although farmers are slated to harvest another historic corn and soybean crop this fall, galloping input and equipment costs have eroded the bottom. U.S. soybean farmers are expected to lose about $100 an acre this year. 

Soybean Sales to China.jpg

Compounding the issue is the trade war with China, which halted imports of U.S. soybeans. China typically buys 25% of its soybean supply from American soybeans, but the country has opted to fill the gap by placing billions in orders from South American countries, especially Brazil. 

Last December, lawmakers passed a $10 billion bailout for farmers to help with low commodity prices.

WSJ reported that Trump plans to push Chinese leader Xi Jinping to buy U.S. soybeans to help struggling American farmers. The two leaders are scheduled to meet next week on the sidelines during a summit in South Korea.

Topcon Preparing for the Turnaround in Ag Economy 

I stopped by Topcon’s Fort Atkinson, Wis., facility this week to check in with the precision technology manufacturer and get a feel for the company’s outlook on the precision market. 

A large percentage of what is manufactured at the Fort Atkinson plant is headed to OEM customers, says Travis Brueske. He is hopeful that we’ll start to see the ag economy stabilize in the second half of 2026. 

“When I look at the market as a whole specifically for agriculture, I am starting to get a sense that we've at least plateaued and I believe plateauing in the sense of we're starting to see an increase or at least some uptick in the frequency of orders coming in from our customers. That's both OEMs and also aftermarket dealerships that we supply here out of this location. Hopefully that trend continues. I wouldn't say it's on a rocket ship. You know what? Going in this direction, we're starting to see some peaks and some valleys, but we're definitely not in that trough anymore.”

“My guess, and my hope is by the end of next year we start to see the new normal. What is that new normal going to look like? I'm not sure, but hopefully getting back to some resemblance of the pre-pandemic type volumes and numbers that we were seeing. To make sure that we're ready for when that happens in any way, shape, or form, we're really focusing here at Topcon on our infrastructure. We are looking at how we're doing things from a process and workflow perspective, and we're looking to see where things like automation potentially could play into what we are doing. We're looking at things like AI, especially on the logistics side of the business, especially for the things that my team is looking at. Because at the end of the day, whatever it comes back to look like, we have to be ready not only to supply a product, but also to support that product that we are selling. And we think by streamlining what we do, that's one positive way to do that.”

DataPoint: Long-term Impact of Tariffs on Ag Economy

This week’s DataPoint is brought to you by the Precision Farming Dealer Summit, coming to St. Louis Jan. 5-6. Visit PrecisionSummit.com to view the program and to register. 

Long-term Impact of Tariffs on Ag Economy.jpg

According to the latest Ag Economy Barometer released October 7, 51% of farmers who responded to the survey expect the increased use of tariffs by the U.S. will strengthen the U.S. ag economy in the long-run. Another 30% say they expect it will weaken the ag economy and 19% were unsure. 

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