John Deere Tech -vs- the American Farmer

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Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 11:57 am


 
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Post by NoSmoke » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 1:55 pm

There is a saying in the world: follow the money.

If anyone thinks that John Deere is doing this just to keep the American farmer safe, then they do not know much about profit margins in business.

What is the probability of a farmer-Repaired combine losing gps location and running over a group of farmers having lunch?

Compare that too...

Repair profits being six times greater than that of new equipment sales for John Deere.

 
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Post by Vbull » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 2:15 pm

I occasionally do some electrical work for a local that buys/repairs, re-finishes lawn tractors and mowers. Whenever he calls I always hope it is not for a Deere. I can get electrical prints for any other brand of tractor online but never a Deere. Having to ring out individual wires just to figure out a problem without a print is a pia. I've called the local dealer and they won't copy 2 pages out of the service manual for me. They instead tell me to purchase the CD-ROM with the service manual for that particular model. (They're all different) The disc ain't cheap! I'd own a horse before ever owning something green for myself.

 
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Post by CoalJockey » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 3:07 pm

This has been reflected in the used equipment market for a number of years now. The small farmer wants a machine he can work on himself, shop labor is very dear when working through a certified dealer.

For example look at the New Generation and 20 series Deere’s that are 50 years old now and selling for more than they did brand new. Or 66 series Internationals or whatever flavor you like. There is a big demand for old and reliable iron.

 
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Post by warminmn » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 3:33 pm

Reading the story reminds me of Tesla.

There is some real crazy tech available now or soon with farming that will make some of this computer crap attractive to large scale (my idea of large scale may be different than yours) farmers.

One Ive been hearing about quite a bit, if I understand it right, is doing soil tests all over a field using GPS for location. That info is fed into the planters somehow, or possibly the tractor computer itself. Then as they plant, it only applies fertilizer to the spots of the field that need it, not just blanketing the whole field as has been done for eternity, or manually doing it which is hard. Doesnt sound like much to read it, but that can be thousands of dollars saved per field.

Im sure thats just a small fart compared to more of it, but that is why some businesses (I hate to say farmers) will buy this crap. My local farm show often talks about the GPS technology coming, including driverless tractors. Scary stuff.

It is mostly large scale business "farmers" that will buy this crap, but they are the ones buying up land.


 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 4:55 pm

W, large scale up this way is milkin around 1000 head & havin approx. at least 500 acres of crop land--(conglomerates )needless to say, very few small family farms have survived this influx!!! (most have gone to beefers-- ANGUS) The conglomerates have big money investors & as usual dealers of everything (grain/machinery, etc.) take advantage!!

 
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warminmn
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Post by warminmn » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 7:00 pm

There are not enough dairy farmers here to matter anymore but Im sure they are mostly over 1000 head. Crop wise "most" with smaller amounts of land rent instead of farming it. It doesnt pay to farm it unless they are feeding it out. Im going to "guess" there are a few of them planting 4000 acres in my county and a couple close to 10,000. They do not own that much land but rent it. There arent many that own 1000 or more. I think only the biggest one or two are into the super modern computer tractors, the largest machinery anyway. 24 row planters are pretty common and I think I saw a 32 last year which i didnt know existed. The ones around 4000 acres are still family farms, meaning the whole family farms, lives here, no hired help. The bigger ones dont live here and have hired help. My township is, if I remember right, 93% tilled. The remainder is houses on 5 acres, ponds from ore, and a small town and woods where its wet. Go north of me 25 miles and they farm much smaller amounts of land as more houses and smaller plots of land. Pig "farms" (I use that term loosely) litter the Iowa MN border. Huge sheds with the owners often living a safe smelling distance away. A crappy way to raise animals. I hardly ever eat pork because of that. About every other place around me has horses but theres no money in that, just hobby stuff.

Anyway, you can see why the computer crap may be appealing with that much land.

 
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Post by Holdencoal » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 7:58 pm

This has been going on for years. It’s called “right to repair”. It’s going on with Apple, Tesla, John Deere and others. I am glad I live in a right to repair state.



Apple repair vs third party repair.


Tesla vs your local shop.


John Deere

 
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Post by warminmn » Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 8:43 pm

Excellent videos! I watched 2 of them so far.

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Mar. 06, 2020 5:11 am

freetown fred wrote:
Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 4:55 pm
W, large scale up this way is milkin around 1000 head & havin approx. at least 500 acres of crop land--(conglomerates )needless to say, very few small family farms have survived this influx!!! (most have gone to beefers-- ANGUS) The conglomerates have big money investors & as usual dealers of everything (grain/machinery, etc.) take advantage!!
We had 5 dairy farms in my extended family...for instance a Great Uncle, my Grandfather, and Uncle, etc. Of those (5) only (1) is left, and this is my grandfather's farm. I think this year it lost in excess of over $100,000.

The biggest farm was my uncles at 1200 milking cows with 1600 acres of corn/1600 acres of grass ground.

When I was working on the farm in 1992 there was 402 dairy farms in Maine, and now it is around 190 dairy farms.

But the interesting thing is; more milk is being produced today then ever before. Part of it comes from the farms being less, but huge in size, and some from output. The cows of today, due to technology, are producing twice as many pounds milked per year per head, then 20 years ago.
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Mar. 06, 2020 6:12 am

No truer words have ever been spoken...
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Post by freetown fred » Fri. Mar. 06, 2020 6:36 am

N, milk market around here took a nose dive a few yrs. back & only the conglomerates have been able to hold on

 
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Post by warminmn » Fri. Mar. 06, 2020 7:09 am

Yep, dairy is the same everywhere. Fewer but bigger farms. Factory farms for the most part milking 3 times a day. Not many of them here anymore. There are still quite a few small to mid sized beef farmers here and the big factory pig farms.

 
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Post by swyman » Fri. Mar. 06, 2020 9:25 am

warminmn wrote:
Thu. Mar. 05, 2020 3:33 pm

One Ive been hearing about quite a bit, if I understand it right, is doing soil tests all over a field using GPS for location. That info is fed into the planters somehow, or possibly the tractor computer itself. Then as they plant, it only applies fertilizer to the spots of the field that need it, not just blanketing the whole field as has been done for eternity, or manually doing it which is hard. Doesnt sound like much to read it, but that can be thousands of dollars saved per field.

It is mostly large scale business "farmers" that will buy this crap, but they are the ones buying up land.
They also change the seed population on the fly according to the GPS samples. My B-I-L is one of those larger farmers and they purchased a one year old 4 wheel drive JD. Nothing but emissions issues and it was one of those dealer only fixes each time but was under warranty. Would have been $2500 per call/fix so they found a series older tractor with very low hours that didn't have the emission crap and ran it all last season with zero issues. BTW, they are still trying to sell the newer model.

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