Articles by Ben Thorpe

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Precision Farming Dealer Summit 2021 Recap

Preparing Your Dealership to Sell & Service Autonomous Equipment

Two dealers provide insight into how dealerships should plan for the future and an autonomous equipment fleet.

Autonomy is on the horizon for the ag equipment industry. Between John Deere’s 2019 driverless tractor concept and Raven Industries accepting preorders for its Autonomous AutoCart, the reality of farmers purchasing and utilizing autonomous equipment is only growing.


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Product Preview

Concord Disc Drill HD

The Concord Disc Drill HD is a married combination of Concord’s single disc drill and AGCO’s double-disc Heads-Up Openers. It features 24 inches of toolbar travel plus 16 inches of opener travel. The Disc Drill HD replaces Concord’s previous double disc drill in its equipment lineup and is capable of up to 7 mph seeding speeds.
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Product Preview

Kinze 4905 16- and 24-Row True Speed Planters

The Kinze 4905 True Speed Planter is the next generation of Kinze’s 4900 model. Its True Speed system consists of a high-speed electric meter and seed delivery tube enabling corn and soybean farmers to plant at speeds up to 12 mph.
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Cost of Doing Business

Dealer Financials Holding Steady

Dealers responding to the latest Cost of Doing Business survey reported improvements in their aftermarket business, but struggled to improve their profits and revenues.
According to the results of the 2020 Cost of Doing Business study from the Western Equipment Dealers Assn., dealers are doing well according to several key financial metrics, including increased aftermarket gross margins and increased revenue per employee.
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What Should Influence Your Used Valuations?

As part of his recent presentation at the 2020 Virtual Dealership Minds Summit, Trent Hummel, consultant and trainer with the Western Equipment Dealers Assn.’s (WEDA) Dealer Institute, showcased a series of studies conducted with Farm Equipment in which surveyed dealers were asked what influences their valuations of used equipment.
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Optimizing Your Used Combine Business Through Data-Tracking

Trent Hummel breaks down how dealers can use hard data to get a handle on their used markets and make smart decisions with their used combine inventories.
Interest in used equipment is on the rise, but not particularly in used combines. According to results from Ag Equipment Intelligence’s August 2020 Dealer Sentiments report, a net 6% of dealers reported their used inventory “too low” in July, the first time it’s been “too low” since June 2012.
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2021 Dealer Business Outlook & Trends Summary

Dealers Forecast Revenue, Unit Sales Growth for 2021

After a unique and difficult year, dealers are reporting they beat last year’s forecasts for 2020 and are indicating 2021 will see even more growth.
It’s been a strange year for dealers to say the least. Not only are dealers following a particularly wet and difficult planting season in 2019, but now they’re facing the long term effects of a global pandemic, as well as an election year in the U.S.
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Using Metrics & Incentive Programs to Optimize Aftermarket Revenue

Reed Allen, director of aftermarket for AgriVision Equipment, talks about how he implements incentive programs, tracks department metrics and uses mentorship to get the most from his parts and service departments.
With the importance of parts and service increasing as the ag economy continues to decline, making sure aftermarket operations are running at peak performance is key.
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2020 Equipment Dealers Assn. Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey

Shortline Approval Holds Steady in EDA’s 2020 Dealer-Manufacturer Survey

This year’s EDA Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Report showed shortline manufacturers score higher on average than full-line manufacturers, as well as beating the average of all combined manufacturers on the survey.
The Equipment Dealers Assn. (EDA) has released the results of its annual Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey to equipment dealers.
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