5 Trends from the 2024 National Farm Machinery Show
If walking down aisles flanked with farm equipment of all kinds and kicking tires sounds like a good way to spend a few days, the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky., is your type of party.
This year was the 58th all-things-iron blowout at the cavernous Kentucky Exposition Center. It’s the largest indoor farm trade show in the U.S., featuring more than 800 exhibitors across 1.2 million square feet of exhibition space.
Judging from the throngs of farm families and smiling farm kids crawling all over shiny tractors, growers appear optimistic heading into spring planting.
“With the advancements in new equipment, farmers are leaning in, and it’s all about the return on investment,” says Machinery Pete. “If this new piece of equipment – this new combine, this new high-speed disk, whatever it is – can make them better farmers, even though dollars are tighter, my sense is they are willing to do that. Plus, you have the warranty component when buying new, which is becoming more and more important when times get challenging."
Here are a five additional trends we noticed at the show:
Year of the Combine Marches On: Case IH declared 2024 the “Year of the Combine” at its recent AF11 Combine launch in Orlando, Fla., and that trend carried through to the show floor in Louisville. New Holland, Fendt and Claas joined Case IH in featuring new-ish combines in their booths – though the Fendt and Claas products were a lower horsepower and capacity than the Class 10+ AF11 Case IH made a splash with a few weeks ago. John Deere is long rumored to be launching something in harvesters at the upcoming Commodity Classic in Houston. Could its new intro possibly top Case’s AF11 behemoth? Stay tuned.
Smaller Horses: Mahindra was one among many equipment manufacturers in Louisville (Kioti and Bobcat joined them) that featured new tractor models in the >100-hp market. Mahindra CEO Viren Popli told Farm Journal around half of all new tractors sold in the U.S. today are in the compact or subcompact segment, and that 70% of those purchases are made by first-time tractor buyers. With that in mind, Mahindra focused on operator ease-of-use and creature comforts, such as integrated guidance and fully enclosed, spacious cabs with brightly lit displays — upgrades usually reserved for the medium-to-high horsepower segments — to ensure a better experience and more longevity for new buyers.
Supply Chain Woes No More: Multiple exhibitors from domestic grain bin manufacturers to multinational equipment firms confirm the global materials supply chain is in a healthy spot going into 2024. Claas, who reportedly experienced supply chain difficulties that limited the initial scope of the North America intro of its Claas 7 TRION 740 combine, says those concerns are firmly in the rearview window.
“As of now, we are in a good place because we don’t rely on too many countries for sources for our products,” Popli adds. “We have a North American supply chain and an Indian supply chain, and between the two today, we are well covered.”
Precision Tech Upgrades for All: Whether it was John Deere’s marketing of its aftermarket Precision Upgrades program and its $25,000 See & Spray dealer-installed option for 2018 and up sprayers, or Trimble highlighting its green-on-green Bilberry smart spray add-on kit and its CenterPoint RTX stream switching technology, the equipment industry is focused on helping farmers unlock precision ag capabilities and operating hours from equipment they already own.
“If you’re a farmer, and you’ve got a machine — maybe you just bought it last season, or maybe you’ve had it five or 10 years — now you have these kinds of independent options that give you a chance to say, ‘Maybe right now’s not the right time to consider a brand-new machine, but I can still bring the latest tech to my existing machines’,” says Than Hartsock, vice president of precision upgrades for John Deere.
Simple vs. Advanced: Although we all love the super advanced tech that’s out there, such as Bilberry and See & Spray, not all innovations have to be complex. Companies are threading that needle between advanced capabilities and operator ease-of-use. Superior Grain Equipment, for example, featured its practical yet powerful reversible Block Buster Auger that reduces grain blockages from outside of the grain bin, all with a simple flip of a two-way analog switch. Great Plains engineered its new 60’ PL Planter Line to be easier for farmers to setup, calibrate and even work on in the shop.
“It’s got some of the necessary technology (on it), but we want to focus on how it’s simple to run and operate and maintain,” says Tony Wisker, product manager Great Plains Manufacturing. “We still have flexibility to add on something more advanced, such as AgLeader downforce technology.”
Those are just a couple examples, but they portend a recognition there is power in simplicity, especially in production agriculture.
