It has been a rough couple of years for short-line agricultural
equipment manufacturers, but they think they’ve seen the worst of it.
“Optimism is the word,” said Jerry Engel, president of
PIMA-Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada.
“I think we’re through the negative phase. I really hope we are.”
The industry took a turn for the worse around 1998 when the effects of
poor commodity prices started to be reflected in lacklustre agriculture
equipment sales.
Since then there have been numerous layoffs in the short-line
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manufacturing industry, but things are slowly starting to bounce back.
Engel said people who have been in the business for a long time are
familiar with agriculture’s cyclical nature and they think this
particular cycle is in the upswing.
Richard Coquet is one who believes the future is brighter.
“We had a pretty good year this year, better than the two previous
years,” said the marketing manager of Bourgault Industries Ltd.
In 1998 the company had to lay off more than half its workforce because
of poor sales.
“The whole short-line industry in Western Canada was going full blast.
All of the sudden the brakes came on,” Coquet said.
Bourgault started rehiring people last year as sales of its air seeders
and air drills began to pick up.
Coquet attributes the turn-around to slightly improved commodity prices
and the realization by farmers that new technology can help them put a
crop in the ground more efficiently than before.
He said a few years of drought and poor grain prices have helped
convince farmers that direct seeding can increase yields by conserving
moisture and can cut costs by reducing the number of passes required to
put a crop in the ground.
“We’ve probably bottomed out and we’re starting to come back up.”
Phil Reddekopp, sales and marketing manager of Highline Mfg Inc., said
2001 was his company’s most successful year since it began operating in
Vonda, Sask., in 1987.
“We are out of product,” Reddekopp said.
“We sold out entirely by mid-December of product that we would normally
have carried over to the following fall.”
The hot item has been the Bale Pro 7000, a bale processing machine that
reduces feeding costs by chopping and mixing hay, making it more
palatable for animals. Reddekopp said livestock producers also use the
machine to process and spread straw for bedding.
Strong cattle prices and a shortage of feed has catapulted sales of the
Bale Pro 7000 to the point where the company had to turn away more than
100 orders this year.
Highline is attempting to maximize its manufacturing capacity by hiring
more skilled labour, but there seems to be a shortage of trained people
because other short-line manufacturers are also hiring.
“I do see other manufacturers ramping up, hiring more people,
increasing their production runs with the anticipation of a better
market in the future,” Reddekopp said.
“We’re all competing for employees at this time.”
Coquet said commodity prices will determine the speed of the industry’s
recovery.
“If a farmer gets more money for his grain, he’s going to spend it.”
