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28 March 24, 2016
2016 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine
Lincoln Daily
News.comNoting that most of the farmers have stayed pretty
current from 2007 to 2014, Cross went on to point
out that for tax reasons farmers bought a lot of
equipment during those years, and therefore in
times like these they don’t have to trade for new
equipment. “The equipment will most likely keep
running unless something catastrophic happens to
it or the farmer picks up more land,” he explained.
“They can run a couple years without spending
any money. When that happens usually we work
on a few more things because the farmer will run
the equipment a little bit longer, and the equipment
only breaks when the farmer uses it.”
Since farmers are not spending money on new
equipment these days due to many factors,
including low commodity prices, the implement
dealers depend heavily on income from
maintenance. “Parts and service does pick up
a little bit, we found out over time,” said Cross,
“but it doesn’t replace the selling of new farm
equipment. I’m not going to get that much income
off of parts and labor in the shop as opposed to
selling a tractor or a combine, but it’s enough to
cover all expenses and keep everybody employed.
That will work. You just have to be able to manage
your input costs. I’ve got used equipment and I’ve
got labor and I just manage that the best I can to
just get through because what goes down, goes up,
it always has.”
Cross has seen this supply and demand work
historically and he shows no signs of panic.
Currently with the commodity prices down, Cross
believes that corn in particular probably doesn’t
need to be as low as it is now, but then again he
added that it probably didn’t need to be as high
as it was three years ago. He went on to add that
there is a lot of corn in storage. “Historically when
these prices are depressed there is usually a lot of
corn and beans in farmer’s hands because they are
reluctant to sell. They’d like to sell it for what they
got for it two years ago. Farmers are very good
at making it all stretch out, making it all work.”
Cross has seen in his over-four-decade-career that
supply and demand works.
According to Cross, the biggest problem
implement dealers face right now is the amount of
used equipment on dealer’s lots. He summarizes
that, “The lack of used equipment helps to sell new
equipment, I don’t care what the price of corn is or
the price of beans is. Too much used equipment
stifles to sell new equipment, regardless of what
the price of corn or beans is.”
His push to sell used equipment involves
incentives, waivers, low rates and hard work.
“You’ve got to knock on doors, you cannot sit
in the office. You have to find a reason to get it
done,” he said. This often involves knowing all the
farmers needs in terms of equipment. Sometimes
this involves trading equipment out of state even.
Finally Cross added, “You just have to turn it, and
the turning of it hasn’t been very good the last 18
months.”
Hopefully in the near future, farmer’s income will
increase to where the equipment situation will turn
around. Nonetheless, whatever happens, you can
bet Tom Cross has seen it in his nearly 40 year
career.
By Teena Lowery