Despite strong presales of equipment going into 2009, the most recent worry expressed by some industry observers is that order cancellations could blunt the effect of what is expected to be a solid first half of the year. But dealers say they have not seen a significant level of cancelled orders during October through December.

The results of a dealer survey conducted by Ag Equipment Intelligence in January asked dealers if they had experienced "significant" order cancellations in the past three months. "Significant" was defined as 5% or more of orders booked.

More than 86% of the dealers polled said they had not seen a sizeable number of order cancellations. Of the less than 14% of dealers that noted a significant number of cancelled orders, nearly 81% said that on average 1-5 unit orders had been withdrawn. Slightly more than 14% reported between 6-10 unit orders were rescinded.