If you look at a semi-trailer truck travelling down the highway with a box trailer, it’s impossible to know what kind of freight is inside. But these days, the value of the cargo carried in just one truck can be extremely high. It could be billed with high-value electronics, or just some wooden pallets being returned to a shipper. Even a truck load of replacement parts heading for the local ag equipment dealers could be pretty high — anyone who’s put their credit card down on a parts counter knows that.
I’ve hauled a few different types of loads over the years doing some occasional truck driving. Although I never really knew the exact dollar value of each cargo, there have been a couple of loads that I knew were contenders for most valuable. A 40-foot specialized trailer filled with very-high value camera equipment for a motion picture location shoot might have been number one. But it’s a fair bet the next highest value load I ever moved was a nearly new John Deer 9RX tractor.
A quick look at John Deere’s build and price website page shows the base price for one of the biggest 9RX models easily tops one million dollars U.S. And that’s just one, single tractor.
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Now imagine a field full of tractors and other machines. That’s what you see at Ag in Motion, with about 550 exhibitors parking their wares on over 100 acres of displays. Granted, not all ag machines have the kind of price tag a new 9RX has, but there are literally dozens of new, machines there, big and small. Then there are the other things, electronic components, grain bins, even a ready-to-move house. The overall value of everything on display has to be into the stratosphere.
Last year after the Ag in Motion farm show had wrapped up, I was asked just how much I thought the total retail value of all the new machines, equipment and displays would amount to. I’d never thought about that question before.
I suspect like most visitors to the show, I’m wrapped up in thinking about the kind of technology being exhibited.
At this year’s show, it would be interesting to try and come up with a ballpark estimate to try and answer that question.
As you walk the grounds of the show this year, try doing some mental arithmetic and see what number you come up with.
