Case IH needs a 'breather' from high farm equipment demand

Monday, October 7, 2013

Farm income appears likely to be down in North America, and equipment manufacturer Case IH thinks that is a good thing.

The cornerstone of high commodity prices has been a weak U.S. dollar and the currency is strengthening. "We need a breather," Jim Walker, Case IH's vice-president of North American agricultural business, told agricultural journalists in Denver recently. North American farmers have never strung together four years of back-to-back high prices as has occurred in the last few years.

Farmers turned high returns from cropping into demand for equipment that was hard to keep up with. Industry sales of 140 h.p. and-higher tractors rose to 25,000 from 12,000 annually, and industry combine sales jumped from 8,500 to 13,000. The growth in production "put a tremendous stress on manufacturing," Walker said. In the ongoing controversy and lobbying over a new Farm Bill, "we fully support the withdrawal of direct subsidies to farmers." However, there still needs to be monies aimed towards insurance to cover crop catastrophes. BF