They may not dominate farmers’ attention quite like tractors and combines do, yet skid steers and wheel loaders are versatile, practical pieces of heavy equipment for farming and livestock operations.
Pete’s Pick of the Week highlighted a pair of recent transactions for both machines on the auction circuit:
- A 2023 Bobcat T770 skid steer on tracks with only 32 operating hours (shown above) sold for $69,750 at an auction in Michigan. That’s the ninth-highest auction price ever on a used Bobcat T770, according to MachineryPete.com data. The record sale price, which is over $98,000, was set in December 2022. Pete says equipment dealer inventories were at historic lows coming off the COVID-19 slowdown, and that likely influenced the price.
- A 2023 Kubota R640 Wheel Loader with 209 operating hours sold for $74,750 at the same auction in Michigan.
“Right now, with the uncertainty in the market – the stock market is dropping and my 401(k) lost 800 points – it just gives you a little back-off. That’s the harsh reality and brutal honesty of these auction prices,” Pete says. “$98,000 was the market at the end of 2022, and right now it’s $69,750. The good news is I think you might get a good buy.”
Last Wednesday at a Big Iron online auction, a pre-def, pre-Tier IV 2010 John Deere 8320R tractor with 3,280 hours (pictured above) went for $166,000. Average auction price for that make/model over the last six months is just over $138,000.
And a 1970 John Deere 4020 diesel tractor (pictured above) sold for $22,250, besting the average auction price for this year by over $11,000.
A pair of John Deere S690 combines that sold in that same Big Iron auction were also worth noting, Pete says. A 2017 model with 1,227 hours went for $131,250 (pictured above) and a 2014 model with 1,395 hours went $125,000.
And lastly, Pete noted two sprayer transactions he found interesting.
At a DPA Auctions sale, a 2022 John Deere 410R sprayer with 347 hours out of Illinois sold for $362,000.
And a 2022 Case IH Patriot 4440 with 1,058 hours from Minnesota sold for $210,500, making it the highest price paid in the U.S. for a Patriot 4440 this year.
Auctions To Watch
For interested buyers looking for the right deal, Pete advises them to be on the lookout for multi-state online auctions.
“This is an interesting trend I’m seeing in the market. They actually label their sale the Tri-State sale, so they pull in equipment from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. There’s another auction company in Nebraska, and they pull equipment out of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. They tend to do these about once a month,” he says.
On Saturday, June 21, he’s looking forward to a farm auction for Harry and Lola Blackburn in Lime Springs, Iowa, hosted by Joel’s Tractor and Auction.
Machinery Pete will be boots-on-the-ground with a camera crew, so you might get to meet him in person if you show up for the sale. There’s a trio of good condition, used John Deere machines that he says make it worth a look.
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