Along with consolidating its dealers, Deere made another big move when it announced that it is merging its Commercial & Consumer Equipment division into the much larger farm equipment operations.
It’s hard to say what was more surprising, Bob Lane’s stepping aside as president and CEO of Deere & Co., or the farm equipment maker rolling its Commercial & Consumer Equipment operations into its Agriculture division to form the Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division.
It looks as if the anticipated consolidation of the compact tractor industry in North America is under way, with the first salvo being merger plans for Montana Tractors LLC and Kukje Machinery Co., the parent company of Branson Tractors Inc.
“Tractor sales appear to have peaked in early 2009 and continued to soften in seasonally important April, combine sales remained relatively healthy,” says Robert McCarthy, analyst for RW Baird, in assessing the April 2009 North American ag equipment retail sales from the Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers.
CNH Global, parent of Case IH and New Holland farm and construction equipment, reported on April 23 that it lost $126 million in the first quarter of 2009 on a 25.2% drop in sales.
On April 15, Art’s Way Manufacturing Co., Armstrong, Iowa, a manufacturer and distributor of agricultural machinery, equipment and services, reported its first-quarter financial results for the 3 months ended February 28.
David Meyer, chairman and CEO of Titan Machinery, headquartered in Fargo, N.D., participated in a May 6 conference call hosted by JP Morgan North America Equity Research to review the latest outlook for agriculture.
March is the first of two seasonally important months for row-crop and 4WD tractor sales, and accounted for 11% of annual sales for each over the past 5 years.
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In this episode of On the Record, brought to you by Associated Equipment Distributors, we take an initial look at the Dealer Business Outlook & Trends Report and what dealers are forecasting for 2025.