As farmers wrap up another spring planting season, used equipment auction sales are down across a handful of machine categories.
Machinery Pete data shows late-model used 175-hp-and-over tractor sales are down 50% from last year, and combines and corn head sales are down 21%. Lower horsepower tractors (sub-40 hp) are also down 75% from 2024.
At the same time, a lot of new-and-late-model machines are sitting on dealer lots as farmers wait out economic uncertainty before making large buys on equipment. It’s creating the perfect conditions for a late summer purge of equipment off dealer lots onto the auction circuit.
“Based on our auction data, if I were a dealer and paying that 6.5% interest rate, which is extremely painful, and my inventory is still too high, I’d feel pretty good about moving some of this stuff out to auction,” Machinery Pete says on the “Moving Iron” podcast.
Casey Seymour, host of the “Moving Iron” podcast, says he likes to break the used equipment auction market into two halves when he’s looking at price movement. One- to five-year-old machines represent one half, and five- to ten-year-old machines are the other half.
“It all depends on the hours when you get to that five-year-old stuff,” Seymour says. “That one- to five-year-old stuff, the faster it’s selling, the better the economy is. And then on the backside of that, that 5- to 10-year-old stuff, the faster it’s selling, the more compressed the economy is.”
Pete adds, “In the 35-plus years I’ve been doing this, what you’re describing there is a market truth. The price of new and what’s happening in the used market have always — and will always — be connected at the hip.”
Used Equipment Out West
21st Century Equipment used equipment specialist Aaron Fintel joined the podcast again this week to talk about what he is seeing in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions.
Seymour and Fintel agree it’s possible a large purge of equipment will be moved off dealer lots and over to the auction yards in the second half of 2025. That’s due to a oversupply of high horsepower row crop tractors sitting on dealer lots. Combines, conversely, are in more of a healthy inventory situation.
“(Tractor) inventory is better than it was 18 months ago at the dealer level, but it’s a long way from where it should be with where we’re at as a market, so it makes perfect sense there would be a purge coming,” Fintel says.
Markets Update
Shawn Hackett, Hackett Financial Advisors, gave a quick update on what’s happening in the commodities markets. He says the cattle markets are in a peak, and ranchers are worried the market has hit its ceiling and will start coming back to earth in the near future.
“This is the time for max protection of your cow-cattle equity,” Hackett says. “If you’re not doing some maximum downside protection action right now, then I don’t want to hear a lot of crying a couple years from now that you can’t make money in the cattle business. This could be it for a while.”
Precision Tech Update
Christopher Murray, marketing manager – precision technology at John Deere, joined Seymour this week to talk about John Deere’s in-cab display offerings.
“Today, we have the ultimate display: the G5 family. Whether it’s a G5 or G5-plus, we have the biggest displays that bring the most precision and the most productivity,” Murray says. “It’s really focused on taking our automation technology into the next step, and that is our Sense and Act.”
Murray also talked about John Deere’s Precision Upgrades Precision Essentials kit, which includes a G5 display, StarFire receiver and a JD Link modem. He says the retrofit kit can be added onto an older machine like a John Deere 8430 tractor, which would enable automation on a 12- to 15-year-old tractor.
Watch the full episode of The Moving Iron Podcast on YouTube.
