U.S. Farm Report viewer David Marshall asks: “What is your take on the memo from the American Farm Bureau Federation and John Deere announcing farmers now have the right to repair their own equipment but with a few caveats? Will this fix the right to repair issue or is it just a way to produce another revenue stream for John Deere?”
This controversy gets far more coverage than it needs or deserves for these reasons:
- The catchy title for this debate is inaccurate. We fix our machinery all the time. R2R, as it is abbreviated, often should be labeled right to hack or override intellectual property law or evade pollution regulations.
- My guess is it involves relatively few farmers. Many, perhaps a large majority are less concerned.
- Headlines are virtually always about John Deere. I think that is partly due to the intense brand loyalty of their customers. Despite frustrations, it seems few farmers driving green contemplate switching brands. John Deere executives must have a hard time taking R2R seriously looking at sales numbers like this. R2R is theatre, not economics.
- Machines are more reliable than ever before. When they do fail, having the manuals and computers service techs use would not encourage me to attempt some jobs. We’ve made starts on some repairs and wisely realized our incompetence level.
- Dealer service is expensive, but self-repair isn’t free. Compare it to the cost of doing complex repairs yourself. After re-repairing a few times because of reassembly mistakes or damage to adjacent components, many of us limit ourselves to repairing what we are comfortable tackling. Time matters. Mid-harvest is not the time to master a difficult repair.
- There is a cost to have trained techs available locally and a trusted service department. That cost should be expected and borne as possible to keep it available.
- Given what we have learned about electronic connectivity, I think farmers should think twice about putting foreign electronics or programming in their machines. If John Deere can lock up combines in Ukraine, why couldn’t the reverse happen here?
In summary, “Right to Repair” is overrated, politically tainted and violates a guiding principle first learned by humans 15,000 years ago: don’t hassle your toolmakers.
