Just within the last few weeks, there’s been plenty to keep one’s attention, both in and outside of the farm economy. For a while up until the first debate, even the presidential election seemed to be fighting for attention. Here’s just a few things we’ve been watching as we put together the final edition of 2020.

“They’ll know more about the products than I can anyway,” he said. Yet without opportunity to contribute to decisions, it also increases the likelihood that your transaction will become “commoditized.”

Instead of calling Omaha home for the first week of August this year, the COVID-19 pandemic grounded us for our 2 national conferences we hold each year (Dealership Minds Summit for machinery dealers and the National Strip-Tillage Conference for growers.)

It was 15 years ago this summer that Farm Equipment’s Dealership of the Year (DOY) edition made its debut. Revisiting the collection of articles on these Alumni Group Members over this period provides an interesting timestamping of growth in the size of leading dealer operations.

The only thing that sounds as crazy as offering someone a congratulations in advance of persevering through an ongoing economic crisis is the idea of accepting it. But if you don’t (or attempt to avoid it altogether), you’ll miss what a hardship promises to teach — as well as tomorrow’s reward for having endured it.

Ty Rankin is the GM at Lone Star Ag (previously known as Parmer County Implement), a 2-store operation carrying Kubota, Claas, MacDon, JCB and Oxbo. Lone Star Ag is specialized in its product offering and doesn’t deal with planters and sprayers like dealers in other parts of the country. Its business is very much harvest related. “All of our equipment, with the exception of Kubota, focuses on silage.”