Reading Time: 5 minutes A stealth deadline is quietly creeping up on Canadian farmers with the power to rewrite your investment costs. It even sounds innocent enough to sneak under your radar screens. After all, it’s just the pending implementation date of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Interim Tier 4 emissions regulation for off-road diesels. Beginning in January, however, […] Read more
Buy Quickly, Or Pay For T4
Too Productive
Reading Time: 5 minutes The last time I heard it, I was talking to an executive of a major farm machinery manufacturer. I won’t tell you his name because it could easily have been any other executive at almost any other manufacturer, but here’s what he said: “Farmers don’t buy what they need; they buy what they want.” Just […] Read more
Ready To Sell
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s a bedrock of car advertising. Maybethebedrock. If an ad is going to sell cars, it has got to show sheet metal. A lot of sheet metal. Not surprisingly, this has also been the bedrock of farm machinery marketing too. A flip through any farm magazine will prove it. Now, Case IH’s new ads are […] Read more
SuperDealer – for Mar. 22, 2010
Reading Time: 9 minutes “ We think that (consolidation) trend is only going to accelerate in the future,” says John Schmeiser How much are you being asked to give up so your dealer can be more profitable? hings have changed down at the local farm machinery dealership. It’s impossible not to notice. If the dealership is still there, everything […] Read more
SuperDealer
Reading Time: 3 minutes We think that (consolidation) trend is only going to accelerate in the future, says John Schmeiser Things have changed down at the local farm machinery dealership. It s impossible not to notice. If the dealership is still there, everything from the building on the outside to the services and the range of products being sold […] Read more
A complete set of wrenches seems as essential to farming as owning a tractor. Skinned knuckles from using them is proof you work smart. But, asks Michael Bevans (above left), is your shop actually good for your business?
Reading Time: < 1 minute Why ask dumb questions? Of course doing your own maintenance and repairs makes you a better farmer. How could it possibly be cheaper to pay someone else to do something you can do? Well, lets put the numbers to the test. But be prepared. It won t be as simple as you might think. Like […] Read more
Shopping Around
Reading Time: 6 minutes A complete set of wrenches seems as essential to farming as owning a tractor. Skinned knuckles from using them is proof you work smart. But, asks Michael Bevans (above left), is your shop actually good for your business? Why ask dumb questions? Of course doing your own maintenance and repairs makes you a better farmer. […] Read more
SIGNING A BETTER DEAL
Reading Time: 4 minutes For the machinery industry, the objective is clear. “Financing sells equipment,” says Sam Steinman, AGCO’s vice-president of sales. “The number one reason we offer financing is so we can keep the sale in-house at our dealers.” Increasingly clear too, is that credit terms are the weapon of choice in the battle to get you to […] Read more
Management
Reading Time: 3 minutes CREDIT CRUNCH HITS DEALERS While most producers enjoy relatively easy access to low-rate credit despite the global downturn, the same can t be said for equipment dealers trying to finance inventory purchases. A major credit provider that had been funding wholesale transactions between dealers and manufacturers has abandoned that market, leaving many dealers without adequate […] Read more
As more machinery makers get squeezed out, the remaining brands are finding it’s essential to put the power into their customers’ hands… literally DRIVING SALES
Reading Time: 6 minutes “We knew we had to get people into seats,” says Adam Reid, marketing manager for the Versatile brand. From the inside, North America’s farm machinery industry feels like it’s under intense competitive pressure. Sure, there’s only a handful of companies left, which sometimes makes farmers feel they’re trapped by having so few choices. But in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
