Selling used machinery remains a challenge for many farm equipment dealers working with fiscally conservative customers in today’s ag market. A recently launched program is offering dealers a new alternative to letting tractors, combines or other implements sit on the lot until the right customer comes along.

Kansas City-based FarmLink, a provider of precision farming technology for combines, developed Machinery Link Sharing. The online resource lets retailers coordinate short- or long-term equipment rentals with farm customers. Dealers set the rental price and customers make online reservations based on need, then publicly rate the retailer based on satisfaction and machinery performance.

Jack Zemlicka, technology editor with Precision Farming Dealer, spoke with Dan Alcazar, vice president of marketing with FarmLink about the program.

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Video Transcript

Selling used machinery remains a challenge for many farm equipment dealers working with fiscally conservative customers in today’s ag market. A recently launched program is offering dealers a new alternative to letting tractors, combines or other implements sit on the lot until the right customer comes along.

Kansas City-based FarmLink, a provider of precision farming technology for combines, developed Machinery Link Sharing. The online resource lets retailers coordinate short- or long-term equipment rentals with farm customers. Dealers set the rental price and customers make online reservations based on need, then publicly rate the retailer based on satisfaction and machinery performance.

The program is designed to help dealers increase equipment turns and generate supplemental income, according to Dan Alcazar, vice president of marketing with FarmLink.

“If I’m sitting on a sprayer for 6 months, on average, and I can rent out that sprayer for a week, just one week out of the 26, and I’m making $100 an hour for 40 hours, it covers at the low end, it covers an awful lot of interest payment, and for the dealer’s benefit, they can still sell that piece of equipment. The depreciation associated with the hours that were put on a sprayer would be minimal.”

While there is no membership fee for dealers to participate, FarmLink receives a commission on each transaction, but the agreement is entirely negotiated by the dealer and the customer, based on need and availability.

Alcazar adds that 20 years ago, a program like this likely wouldn’t have gotten much traction, but it’s one that makes more sense in today’s equipment marketplace. Since its launch in August, the equipment-sharing program has had more than 16 dealers enroll.