With corn planting at 97% complete and soybeans at 90%, Casey Seymour and Machinery Pete are seeing used equipment auction activity pick back up.
Analyzing buying activity is vital to understanding the market as a whole, but Pete also carefully studies dealer inventory levels, which he says are “in a normal cycle — we’re kind of moving things forward.”
“Another thing that’s pointing to things turning around is the Purdue (University) survey on farmer sentiment,” Seymour adds. “It was actually up; the rating was quite high compared to where it’s been in the past. One of the things they talk about is farmers are going to upgrade; they are going to go out and spend money on equipment.”
Pete agrees there’s an upward trend to the market right now, most notably on combines, which he views as a market health measuring stick (along with high horsepower tractors). Used John Deere X9 combines, for example, carry an average auction price today of $522,400; last year at this time it was well under $500,000.
Seymour and Pete are also forecasting what equipment dealers and farmers can expect from the market this fall and into 2026. Pete doesn’t think a big push of late-model machines to the auction circuit is likely.
“The rest of ‘25, particularly this summer, could be a tremendous (buying) opportunity,” he says. “Whatever your need is, whether it’s that tractor or that combine or a planter, you should be able to get it at a good price.”
The guys advise farmers to sit down and put together a purchasing plan for any foreseeable equipment needs. They think prices on new and used equipment will only continue to tick higher, so buying what you need as soon as possible looks to be the right play.
Farmer Purchasing Trends Out West
Aaron Fintel, used equipment specialist, 21st Century Equipment, joins Seymour to talk about used equipment buying activity. 21st Century Equipment is a John Deere dealership with 25 retail location across Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
“The used buyer is waking up and paying attention. In the last five to 10 years it became a trend where you sell some used planters in July,” Fintel says. “The cool thing there is you’re buying it so far out, you just got done with yours and you know exactly what you want to do, it’s very fresh in your mind.”
Fintel says he is also seeing plenty of buying activity on used sprayers.
“It’s a great opportunity to look at sprayers and planters this time of year, and really, that’s what we’re seeing move (right now),” Seymour adds.
There is also growing demand in his neck of the woods on used row crop tractors, Fintel says. Anything priced under $500,000 is where most farmers look first.
“There’s just so many out there, farmers feel like they should take advantage,” he says.
Shawn Hackett, president and CEO, Hackett Financial, went over recent developments in the corn and soybean commodities markets. He thinks the growing season in the Midwest will experience weather-related challenges in June and July (hot, dry conditions) before flipping to a cool and wet pattern. That could lead to slow harvests and high moisture corn needing to be dried down, piling extra costs onto farmers. These factors could lead to a significant crop price rally later in the year, he predicts.
Anthony Styzinski, service development manager, John Deere, also joined Seymour to go over the latest technology advances within Deere’s line of planting equipment. He talks about ExactEmerge and MaxEmerge 5E electric seed metering tech, as well as seed and fertilizer level sensing and vacuum automation.
Watch the full episode of Moving Iron over on YouTube now.
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