The farm machinery math ain’t mathin’ for Mike Hynek.
Across a 50-plus-year career in the fields of extreme southcentral Nebraska, Hynek contends the gap between agribusiness and common farmers has never been greater.
“Fertilizer, chemicals, and seed creeped up over 20 years, but the past five years prices have been downright crazy, and maybe the most frustrating of all is agriculture equipment,” he says. “I’m repeating what you’ll hear from any farmer on the turn row, anywhere in the country: The big machinery companies have lost sight of us.”
Farmer hide is as hard as hickory. However, peel off a thin layer, year over year, and eventually thick skin wears to bone. “I’m speaking up about a damn shame,” Hynek adds. “We’re being driven to the breaking point.”
Dirt and Metal
Standing in his farm shop, tucked in a Cornhusker pocket just above the Kansas line, Hynek, 68, points at a combine part. “That one? It’ll cost you about three times more than five years ago.”
He next picks up a tractor part: “Costs twice what it did five years ago. But we’re expected to accept it like it’s a natural increase. If you work in the agriculture chain at any level, and you think these prices are genuinely reasonable, I’d like to ask a question, ‘Are you OK with them going even higher?’”
Eleven tractors, most wearing plenty of age, along with an assortment of other machines, are scattered across Hynek’s operation. Located in the rolling hills of Webster County, just outside Guide Rock, he grows alfalfa, corn, and soybeans (two-thirds dryland), along with brome hay and prairie hay, and runs a cow-calf operation, and markets Angus-Wagyu cross beef.
Hynek knows business—both dirt and metal. He oversees Hynek Construction, specializing in grain bin erection across the Plains and Midwest, but reaching into Kentucky and Washington state. In five of the past seven years, Hynek has been the top dealer of Conrad American/Eaton bins in the United States.
Want to track down Hynek? Expect to find him in his fields—or on the road. “I travel a lot, and I’m constantly with farmers that aren’t my immediate neighbors, so I hear perspective from all over. Everybody, whether local or distant, is pissed at the big farm machinery corporations and dealerships. Some guys are loud about it and some are quiet, but they’re all tired and turned off.”
“Frankly, I can’t imagine how pissed everyone would be at me if I ran my grain bin construction the same way.”
Plain Truth?
In spring 2025, Hynek needed a new combine draper head. He checked prices on both sides of the state line with local dealers, and got the same answer from management. No sale.
“Nebraska and Kansas, didn’t matter. I was told, over and over, ‘We are not allowed to sell you a draper head.’ They said I had to buy from my designated local dealership.’”
“Here’s what’s going on: One company bought the competition. They bought all the little stores, 20 or 30 or who knows how many, in my region and now they charge whatever they want. They won’t even tell me their shop rate for work, but I would guess it’s close to $250-270 per hour. Farmers pay it because there’s nowhere else to go, and because there are digital parts of the machinery that you simply can’t fix without’em.”
Robust competition, he claims, exists only at the farmer level. “Everyone above us has moved to unprecedented levels of consolidation and passes down costs. That’s not controversial; that’s just plain truth.”
Altar of the Temporary
At five years old, Hynek began raking hay with a Ford 8N. By sixth grade, he was a man-child in the rows, working alongside adult labor. Across a career split between farming and construction, including survival during the 1980s agriculture wreck, Hynek insists the position of farmers in relation to new machinery has never been weaker.
“I love the products and technology, but I’m calling a spade a spade. I see the nice profit lines of the big companies, while I see farmers terribly struggling, especially the young guys. These families are being strangled by unreasonable prices. Do the big corporations not see it? Eventually, the big names will regret it because they’ll have fewer people to buy their vehicles.”
From Hynek’s vantage point, agribusiness is sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the temporary.
“I’m not upset with the guys who turn a wrench at any of these companies or some of the great individuals working at the dealerships. I’m upset with the brass and the boardrooms who control the prices. They treat farmers like numbers, sending their lobbyists to Washington, D.C., for bailout money, so we can eventually pay them. Where are the politicians, agriculture media, and associations? How can anyone—an executive, economist, or so-called expert—look a farmer in the face and say these equipment and parts prices are fair-minded?”
Tariffs? Trade wars? Covid? Inflation? Market disruption? All of the above and more? They hold partial blame, Hynek says, but are not the root cause.
“It’s simple, I believe. Whether the farm economy is good or bad, certain profit quotas must be hit. It all passes along the chain to the last guy standing in line: a farmer. It always has. But now it drops down with the extra weight of consolidation.”
Next Generation?
In his early twenties, Hynek clawed for a toehold in agriculture. No equipment. No farming relatives for support. He taught high school ag for seven years, saving $6,000 to launch a solo farming career.
“It was hard, hard work, but it was possible,” he recalls. “But now? The starting hole is so deep for a young guy—and getting deeper.”
“I’m established. I’m one of the fortunate ones. I’m going to make it. But what about our next generation? How does a young guy stay in or start at these equipment prices? The machinery corporates are not helping, and we’ve all been too quiet for too long.”
Which color does Hynek blame? The rainbow.
“If I charge a farmer too much for a grain bin, he will go down the road and hire someone else. That’s a healthy balance for everyone. Instead, in the ag equipment sector, all the colors are letting us down. I know that from being on operations across the country.”
Farmer struggles in Arkansas and Mississippi have captured recent headlines. Nebraska growers are in the same rut, Hynek asserts. “I know of a bank pulling the rug on four farmers. If the big bailout money doesn’t come, there’ll be at least eight more. That’s just one small bank in southern Nebraska.”
Where to begin to find a solution? The numbers, Hynek advocates. “We need to start with our lawmakers asking the corporates to explain the steady price creep over the last 20 years and explain the big price climb over the past five years.”
“According to what we’re told by the companies and giant dealerships, everyone in the agriculture chain is suffering. Kinda strange, because I don’t hear about anyone going bankrupt but farmers.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Outraged Farmers Blame Ag Monopolies as Catastrophic Collapse Looms
Family Farm Wins Historic Case After Feds Violate Constitution and Ruin Business
County Shuts Down 15-Yr-Old’s Bait Stand on Family Farm, Threatens Daily Fines
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
