BRANDON, Man. — Day two of Manitoba’s Ag Days in Brandon saw average to above average crowds, said show organizers of the winter farm event. While the warmer, snowy weather might have made the trip to town seem like a good idea, the seminars and sessions brought it the crowds, with several reaching standing room only.
Greg Peterson, Machinery Pete, was on hand to give a full theatre of producers his insights into used farm equipment prices.
“There is a lot of demand for farm used farm machinery, if you have the right stuff. Canadian equipment is a hot topic in the U.S. right now. Even in the south, so you know it’s a big deal,” said the farm auction watcher.
Peterson is known for the www.machinerypete.com website operated by AgWeb, Farm Journal, and attending and monitoring farm auctions nearly every week of the year, across the United States.
Trends he is seeing including some improvements in late model, used equipment prices through 2015, after a poor showing in 2014.
“That improvement leveled out in (early December) and went flat. Larger planters and self propelled sprayers are not doing too well. And 350 to 450 horsepower, four-wheel-drive tractors are pretty soft too,” he said.
The bigger, late model machines were traded off during the wave of new equipment buying that took place from 2009 to 2013. Too large for smaller producers, too small for the larger, the equipment is somewhat stranded until its price falls.
He said Canadian producers have opportunities to attract U.S. buyers due to the lower dollar and more flexibility on the prices compared to their U.S. neighbours.
Hot items include 10 year old, mechanical front wheel drive and two wheel drive tractors in good condition. These have been setting record prices all year.
“And anything that was in limited production or unique is brining top dollar,” he said.
“An auction is never wrong. The price that is paid that day is what an item is worth,” he said in an interview.
For more on Peterson’s insights on the machinery market’s trends look for a story in next week’s Western Producer.
Cattle were top of mind on day two. Demand for beef hasn’t been as high since 1991 and strong prices reflect that said, said Jim Robb to a crowd of producers at the show.
Tom Tiechroeb told producers they need to take advantage of the risk protection tools that are no available.
Look for more on the cattle industry from Western Producer analyst Ed White in coming stories from the event.
Do it yourself robotics was big on day two, as local farmer Matt Reimer showed fellow producers how they could take remote control of their equipment. He said producers only need to think of what they would like to automate, and for the most part, they can accomplish those goals with open-source software and inexpensive hardware. Western Producer reporter Robert Arnason will be writing about this and the spread of clubroot.
