Despite the current volatility in grain prices and still weak dairy sector, more farm equipment dealers than not anticipate that their 2010 sales revenues will be as good as or better than the levels achieved in 2009 — though clearly they’re not as confident as they were last year at this time.

At the same time, North American dealers are demonstrating far more confidence going into the new sales year than they did last spring. And as North American dealers closely watch commodity prices — it ranked second on their list of major concerns — nearly all of them — 98.2% — are very apprehensive about the escalating cost of new equipment going into the new sales year.

Preliminary results of Ag Equipment Intelligence’s 2010 Dealer Business Trends & Outlook survey indicate that more than 57% of ag machinery retailers responding to this year’s survey see sales revenues for 2010 being as good or better than what they experienced during the past year.

Final tabulation is still underway and more detail will be presented in the October/November issue of Farm Equipment. The complete 48-page 2010 Dealer Business Trends & Outlook report will be distributed to all AEI subscribers in mid-October.