In today’s newscast, AGCO reveals its Ideal combine to North America — the first “clean-sheet” design of an axial combine in the industry in decades. In this week’s Technology Corner segment, we take a look at the challenges dealers face in recruiting and retaining precision service technicians. We also take a look at how large ag equipment sales rebounded in May and how Deere’s retail sales compared to the industry average, the changes in machinery values on Illinois farms over the last 10 years and a deterioration of European dealer sentiment in June.

In today’s newscast we discuss AGCO’s decision to introduce the 1000 Vario tractor as both a Fendt and a Challenger model, something the manufacturer has never done before, how one dealer has integrated crop insurance into its precision farming department, how the current ag economy is impacting farmers’ working capital and the attention agribusiness mergers, like that of Bayer and Monsanto, are getting on Capitol Hill.