The number of Machinery Pete blog posts I’ve written over the decades is like counting the stars in the night sky. But out of all of them, I can report that none have ever got the immediate immense response as the one I posted the evening of Dec. 12, 2023. Given the subject matter, I knew the instant I hit “post,” things were going to get very interesting.
Adam Bormann is a young farmer and a seed dealer in Stickney, S.D. He posted the following combine for sale by owner on our MachineryPete.com website: 2009 John Deere 9570 STS. 0 sep. hour. One owner. Always stored in family shed.
I called Adam immediately to get the story — just like Paul Harvey. He relayed that his late father and grandfather bought it new in Corsica, S.D., in 2009. A short time after, Adam’s father changed their crop rotation away from corn and had their soybeans custom harvested moving forward. So, the machine stayed in their shed. 0 sep. hours.
He asked me if he was nuts for thinking of asking $249,900 for it. My reply: “That’s what I’d ask.” Smaller class size combines that are pre-DEF in excellent condition with low hours are a winning poker hand.
A tidal wave of nearly 30,000 people clicked on the blog. The Machinery Pete Facebook post reached over 200,000 in about a day. Radio stations called me to ask if I’d join them on air to talk about it.
Two days after the blog posted, Adam called me as I was driving across Missouri to film a farm auction the next day for our Machinery Pete Show and said two potential buyers were offering full asking price.
One was from the South with plans to use it for harvest in the future and had no intent to keep the 0 sep. hour 2009 model 9570 STS in the shed. This is the case at least half of the time for these unbelievable, low-hour machines. Folks assume all buyers will want to put it under glass and keep it as collector item, but most of the time, buyers want to farm.
A Faster Moving Market
Obviously, this is an extreme example. But our Machinery Pete auction sale price data does show used combine values went up late in 2023. This is after a period from December 2022 through August 2023 when used combine values dipped.
The supply and demand chart looks back two years, and you’ll notice the supply line tanking in late summer 2023. That was a direct response to the larger dealer groups pushing tons of their used combines out on to the auction market, trying to get ahead of it and paring down their inventory.
It worked. By November to December 2023, values were strengthening.
This faster moving used farm equipment market is a truth you need to consider when making your farm’s equipment plan going forward. The old days of softer times in the ag cycle offering used deals due to dealers holding way too much inventory are in the rearview mirror.
