“North American sales decreased by $33 million year over year, and operating margins remain below breakeven,” said Damon Audia, Agco’s senior vice-president and chief financial officer.

Agco experienced a nine per cent drop in sales in North America over 2025, one per cent less than the 10 per cent overall market decline. The company attributes that drop to farm income declines in the United States and tariff costs, which it expects will continue into 2026.

The company’s softer sales came largely from lower demand for sprayers and mid-range tractors.

“Farmers are delaying new equipment purchases due to elevated input costs and tighter profit margins,” said Audia.

“The U.S. government’s $12 billion farmer bridge assistance program has helped shore up farmers’ balance sheets but has not translated into new equipment purchases at this time.”

Less decline

While Agco’s financial statements pool all of North America into one market segment, sales reports from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers shows Canada had significantly less decline in tractor and combine sales than the U.S.

This means much of the North American market decline appears to be attributable primarily to reduced U.S. sales.

Other, stronger global market regions, however, helped push the company’s overall operating profit to an average 7.7 per cent for 2025.

“Our adjusted operating margins are among the best in Agco’s history and the strongest for this point in the (farm machinery sales) cycle,” said chief executive officer Eric Hansotia.

“We nearly doubled our adjusted operating margins from prior (demand) troughs.”

Because low North American demand, particularly in the U.S., is expected to continue through 2026, the company is planning to continue its reduced manufacturing output, hoping to lower machinery inventory here to a six-month supply.

“You’re going to see North America down in a loss margin in the high single, low double-digits for 2026,” said Audia.

“Europe should stay right around that 15 per cent (profit) margin for the full year.”

A big factor in that loss is tariff costs imposed by the U.S. government.

“The absolute tariff costs for 2026 will be around $105, $110 million,” he added. “That’s what’s compressing our year-over-year margins.”

Gains of other sorts

Despite that negative financial news from this side of the Atlantic, the company actually saw a gain in market share in North America, and executives expect another two to three per cent marketshare gain in 2026 as the company’s newest machines debut.

“Agco turned in the highest market share in our history in 2025” globally, Hansotia said.

“It was the largest one-year gain for market share in North America.”

One North American segment that is likely to run counter to the declining sales trend is smaller tractors.

“The North American small tractor market offers a more positive counter balance as livestock and hay economics look comparatively resilient,” Audia said.

“And the older (farmer-owned) fleet points to emerging opportunities in 2026. We expect smaller tractors to be up modestly.”

Overall, though, the company expects large ag equipment sales numbers in North America to fall further, by as much as 15 per cent.

On the other side of the Pacific, Australia has seen gains for the company.

Europe, however, is likely to remain the brightest spot for Agco, with a possible five per cent sales increase expected due to solid farm incomes there causing positive sentiment among producers.

“Farmer sentiment (in Europe) is relatively positive,” said Hansotia.

“At Agritechnica, the feedback we were getting was more positive than we expected.”

While the company doesn’t expect the global machinery market to significantly improve this year, it should boost profit margins due to production cost reductions and overall total global sales stability outside of the U.S.

“We expect global industry demand to be relatively flat compared to 2025,” said Hansotia.

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However, the Sowa family at Wadena, Sask., about 200 km east of Saskatoon, say they have no plans to change their multi-brand, single-store business model.

Bill Sowa, 93, a founding member of Wheatbelt Sales, still comes in every day to the business his family members and partners now operate. The dealership can trace its origin back 60 years to 1965.

WHY IT MATTERS: With many farm equipment dealerships now merged into chains to achieve economies of scale, farmers might wonder if any other retail business model is still making a go of it.

“I was in Toronto and got interested in bringing back used vehicles,” recalls Sowa.

“We got really large into bringing back cab and chassis trucks. It was a real niche market. We would bring them back and put boxes and hoists on them.

“We were bringing as many as 70 trucks a year, so we decided to go into business. We decided if we’re going to do that, to take on a dealership.”

In the inventory

Incorporating Massey Ferguson and GMC franchises into the business was the start of what Wheatbelt Sales has become today.

“We dropped GM after a couple of years because we found out we could make more money with used vehicles,” says Sowa.

“It kind of interfered with bringing back used vehicles. People could afford them more, too. That had a lot to do with it.”

Eventually, Wheatbelt Sales also undertook another unorthodox sales initiative: selling used equipment to overseas customers. It also sought to sell equipment widely across the Prairies rather than just into its local area.

MORE READING: Can your cash flow handle new machinery payments?

Part of the business philosophy has been to have a large number of machines on the lot ready for delivery to customers.

“Bill’s always been a big believer in inventory,” says co-owner Jim Sowa.

“If you don’t have it, you can’t sell it.”

Originally the business was located at Invermay, Sask., but eventually the owners saw a need to relocate to a larger community, so they chose Wadena, about 50 km west.

Construction started on a large new building there in 1978 and the move was made in 1980. However, there was already a MF dealer there, so Wheatbelt had to drop that franchise.

With the need to take on a new equipment line, Versatile became the choice. It and Kubota are now the core brands at Wheatbelt, along with a number of short-lines such as Bourgault.

Standing solo

Over the years, Bill says he developed a good relationship with manufacturers, which he believes helped the dealership by getting customer feedback directly to them and ensuring new machinery arriving on Wheatbelt’s lot was designed to meet customers’ needs.

“When I was in Toronto, I got involved with Massey engineers,” he says.

He also became friends with Peter Pakosh, one of the founders of Versatile.

Sowa credits the dealership’s continued single-store viability to having a succession of good partners. The family members now invested in the business have also brought a lot of experience and expertise in their respective fields, which has benefited the company.

Over the years the service department has become a major part of the dealership, and the family recognizes that parts support is key to maintaining customers. With nine service technicians on staff, Juston Sowa, also a co-owner, says the company could still use another four.

“I would say service has become a big part of our business,” adds Jim.

Being supportive of the dealership’s staff has also helped retain existing employees for the long term, he says.

“We had a (60th anniversary) event, and it was very touching to have some employees come up and say they felt like family with us. Treat people the way you want to be treated, and that gets you the furthest.”

The company was reorganized in 2003 under the current ownership group, allowing a couple of the original partners to retire. However, the original intention to focus solely on a single-outlet business remains in place.

“We have no intention of opening any other outlets,” says Bill.

“If we do any expanding, it will be right here in Wadena.”

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The disputes have lowered farm incomes in North America — reducing the ability of farmers to buy new equipment — while having also increased manufacturing costs, making equipment more expensive.

WHY IT MATTERS: Aggressive U.S. government economic actions in 2025 reduced corporate profits across the agricultural equipment sector.

The imposition of countervailing tariffs on U.S. soybean sales caused a major income loss for U.S. farmers. Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola depressed some farm incomes here. Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada, which represents Canadian ag equipment manufacturers, estimates the sector saw a 30 per cent sales decline over 2025 as a result.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), which tracks tractor and combine sales, shows sales were down in both the U.S. and Canada.

In two-wheel drive tractors above 100 horsepower, the U.S. saw a dramatic overall sales decline of 22.6 per cent for the year. Four-wheel drive tractor sales declined 41.6 per cent and combine sales fell 35.6 per cent.

The picture in Canada was a little brighter, but still showed softer tractor sales. Hundred-plus-horsepower tractor purchases fell 12.1 per cent; four-wheel drives, 23 per cent. But combine sales grew about three per cent.

All of this happened as the farm equipment industry was already near the bottom of a demand cycle, with sales already slow going into 2025.

With Chinese tariffs on canola slated to return to more normal levels, Canadian farm income is likely to improve in 2026 — assuming weather events aren’t a factor.

In the U.S., the government has promised a second bailout to mitigate reduced incomes from trade disruption caused by the Trump administration, so there is some optimism for improving sales conditions in 2026.

But as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration maintains an aggressive posture toward imposing sanctions and tariffs on an apparent whim, as well as threatening military action toward historic allies, it’s anyone’s guess how the GDP of western nations will be affected. Farm incomes will be caught in that web.

Bottom lines

It is clear, however, that ag machinery brands will continue to face reduced margins in 2026. John Deere, for example, estimated mid-year in 2025 that tariff costs would add US$600 million to its costs for that fiscal year. It expects that problem to continue into 2026.

Much of Agco’s product line is built outside of North America and imported, making those machines subject to significantly higher tariff rates than machines built in the U.S.

Agco CEO Eric Hansotia said earlier in 2025 that the company would try to reduce the effect on imported equipment sticker prices by averaging tariff costs across its entire product line.

All brands in the machinery and automotive sectors are facing similar cost increases.

A statement by AEM said tariffs on steel and aluminum alone would impact U.S. manufacturing costs for brands by about seven per cent. That almost certainly means farmers will continue to face higher sticker prices on future machinery purchases.

Adding further uncertainty to equipment sales in 2026 is the upcoming renegotiation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

During a visit to a Ford assembly plant in Michigan in January, Trump said of the CUSMA agreement, “There’s no real advantage to it. It’s irrelevant,” putting its future in jeopardy.

More recently he added: “If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100 per cent Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the USA.”

That would violate the existing CUSMA agreement.

Ignoring trade agreements, though, has become standard fare for the president. This past week, he said he would unilaterally change a trade agreement with South Korea, upping the tariff rate to 25 per cent, simply because the legislative process there hasn’t ratified the deal quickly enough to suit him.

All this means no agreement with the U.S. can be considered firm and binding as long as the current U.S. administration remains in power. It will only remain in force until the president decides it isn’t.

The U.S. is now arguably the least reliable trading partner on the globe. That means how ag equipment sales will shake out this year is far from certain. Under the current U.S. administration, manufacturers’ costs and market access going forward are completely unpredictable.

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The company was contacted this summer by Time and invited to nominate its unique Razors Edge combine concave to be considered for recognition.

“I thought it was a joke, at first,” CEO Jeremy Matuszewski says.

“We weren’t aware they recognized inventions every year. After we won two awards at Ag in Motion, they reached out and asked if we were interested in applying. So we applied. It was that simple.”

WHY IT MATTERS: A harvesting innovation developed by a Prairie farm equipment manufacturer has now boosted the company’s international profile.

The Razor’s Edge concave beat out five other nominations in the agriculture category.

At Ag in Motion this year, Matuszewski praised the unique design of the concave line, focused more around “how the material flows through a combine.”

The concave line, designed around individual combines, is meant to improve cleaning and separation and removes the need to change between crops.

Farmers can have a slower rotor speed and wider concave clearance, and are also being sold on the design with a promise of more efficient operation and less fuel cost. They’re likewise promised that they can “say goodbye to the hassle of cover plates,” on the company’s website.

Features include a tighter design on the point of the concave with greatest crop impact. Material posted by the company points to lower grain loss during harvest due to fewer bottlenecks in material flow and, in general, better ability to “keep material flow smooth and consistent — no more overloads or downtime.”

History of wins

It’s not clear if winning the awards at AIM was what brought the concaves to Time’s attention, but, “the timing was pretty particular,” Matuszewski says.

Key prerequisites for nomination were that the product had to be new and commercialized this year and found to be making a difference in the market, Matuszewski recalls about the application process.

On its website, the magazine writes that it has been compiling its list of the “most impactful new products and ideas in Time’s Best Inventions issue” since 2000. It adds that editors evaluated each contender on “a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition and impact.”

In all, the magazine recognized 300 of what it terms groundbreaking inventions and 100 special mention inventions across a wide variety of categories. Aside from the recognition and publicity, there is no other reward for the winners.

The final list was announced in early October and the winners will be published in the November print edition.

“They put one (winner) on the cover,” says Matuszewski of the upcoming November issue.

“It is a housekeeping robot. It’s pretty cool. But you can order a cover they’ll ship to you with your invention on it. But it’s not the actual cover.

“Anytime you win an award adds more credibility to the product, but how the product performs is ultimately going to dictate the sales and ultimate growth of that product.”

Time’s list can be found online.

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It may, if it was stored correctly for the winter, Kioti product line manager Joel Hicks says.

“Some green industry professionals assume they can simply park their compact tractors until spring, or a quick tuneup is all it takes to get ready for winter work. In reality, proper winter maintenance involves much more.”

Why it matters: Time spent on out-of-season equipment maintenance and proper storage translates to less time spent on repair when farmers have no time to spare in season.

And he adds he’s heard a lot of misconceptions from owners over the years.

First, many owners think fall maintenance isn’t required unless the machine will be exposed to harsh winter elements. That’s not always the case. Long storage periods can cause problems in compact equipment, just like any other machine.

Here are his basic maintenance recommendations:

First, ensure tire pressures are correct and periodically checked throughout the winter.

“Tire pressure drops when temperatures drop,” Hicks says. “Keeping inflation pressures up will help extend tire life.”

“Using a quality cover and parking the machine on blocks is another great option.”

Rodents can become a problem during storage. Keeping machines inside a shop or garage won’t likely stop them. In fact, it may make it more likely as mice look for sheltered winter homes. So, take measures to keep them out or caught before they start doing damage.

Fluids, especially gasoline, can break down over long storage periods and condensation can collect inside tanks. Adding fuel stabilizer and ensuring the engine runs long enough to pull some into the carburetor can save a lot of fuel system headaches in the spring.

Changing oil before storage can ensure contaminants from combustion during seasonal use aren’t left to cause any deterioration inside the engine.

Exposed metal surfaces can be subject to corrosion. Touching up areas with paint chips and coating exposed surfaces with a rust preventative can help prevent that.

But of course, you can’t paint over dirt, and debris buildup, which also helps promote corrosion. “A thorough cleaning can reduce the risk of long-term damage to your equipment,” Hicks says. “A little dirt and debris can lead to worse things, like small animals creating nests in your equipment. Taking the time for cleaning can save some time in the spring.”

You should also disconnect batteries during storage. Small power draws can pull voltage down over time and increase the risk of a battery freezing or discharging too fully. It also provides an opportunity to clean cables and check over wiring.

With so much equipment on a farm needing maintenance, it’s easy to overlook the small seasonal-use machines. So be sure to add them to the farm’s maintenance schedule log.

Even small machines can get expensive, Hicks notes, so spending some time giving them a little love in the fall is definitely worth the effort.

“It also protects your investment and helps ensure long-term reliability,” he says.

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The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), a North American trade group representing off-road equipment makers, hosted a demonstration day for staff from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, the Privy Council Office, the House of Commons, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

“Demo Days give federal officials a unique, hands-on understanding of how precision agriculture tools are transforming Canadian farms,” said Alexander Russ, AEM’s senior advisor for global public policy, in a news release. “By seeing these tools in action and maintaining an open dialogue, regulators and industry can work together to realize the Canadian agriculture industry’s full potential.”

RELATED: Farm disconnect becomes farm policy disconnect

On hand to represent the industry and discuss aspects of modern agricultural production with them were experts from Case IH, John Deere, Kubota, Kuhn, Lely and Salford. Those brands brought demonstration equipment and discussed technologies including precision spraying, self-repair strategies, automated dairy equipment, and fertilizer and tillage applications.

The intent was to show officials and those in charge of inking regulations affecting agricultural practices how growers can take advantage of innovative technologies to conserve resources and boost production efficiency.

“The event was designed to bridge the gap between policy and practice by providing insights on how farmers are doing more with less at a time when the agriculture industry in Canada must further modernize to meet growing international demand,” AEM said in a statement.

“By showcasing real-world applications of advanced ag technologies, it was a chance to see innovation in action and understand how modern tools are shaping the future of farming,” AEM representative Alexander Russ said via email. “The event was designed to give federal regulators a firsthand look at how the products they oversee are used on the farm, with a particular focus on the role of precision agriculture in driving efficiency while safeguarding conservation efforts.”

Asked if regulations were discussed around the use of large-scale drones to apply pesticides — a growing area of interest to farmers — Russ did not say.

However, AEM noted industry groups including AEM, CropLife Canada, Grain Farmers of Ontario and Fertilizer Canada used the occasion to highlight the policies and government incentives they want prioritized to boost productivity and encourage farmer uptake of modern agricultural best practices.

— Article updated to clarify attribution of comment.

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In all that time, equipment bearing his name has played an important role in the lives of millions of farmers worldwide. That has spawned a very large following of brand enthusiasts and individuals who have significant personal collections of the green brand’s memorabilia and equipment.

Deere too now has its own extensive archives containing not only select pieces of equipment but also items that detail its corporate history. The facility that houses that collection, which itself began in 1976, is located in East Moline, Illinois.

“We were created because our CEO at the time, William Hewitt, the last Deere family member to serve in that role, commissioned a professor at Dartmouth to write a corporate history,” says branded properties and heritage manager Neil Dahlstrom, who curates the collection.

“So it really started as a corporate memory exercise. In order to do that, you need to start acquiring records and materials.

“We were fortunate in that we had what was called an agricultural library at Deere since at least the very early 20th century. They saved things like speeches, advertising and secondary market share research — even things like journals from Robert Tate, who was one of John Deere’s partners when he moved to Moline in 1848.”

Home to the Deere collection is a 75,000-square-foot building that houses millions of individual items. It was originally built as the East Moline sales branch in 1955 — so even the building is a piece of corporate history.

“We have the core archives,” Dahlstrom adds. “So it’s everything from business records to advertising to service literature, CEO papers, in the neighbourhood of probably three million photographs and a large film collection that dates back to 1929. In addition to that, there are several thousand artifacts — everything from stickpins from the early 20th century to licensed products, including toys and social media influencer kits most recently.

“We sample these things. We don’t collect one of everything, because there’s just too much. In addition to those, we also manage the company’s historical equipment collection, which is about 500 pieces. The oldest in our collection is a plow built by John Deere in 1853.”

There are milestone machines in the collection, including a 1980 4440 tractor, the two-millionth tractor to roll off the line at Waterloo, Iowa. It only has 27 hours on the tachometer. There are also combines, construction equipment and lawn tractors, as well as experimental prototypes that didn’t make it to production.

But not all of the collection remains stored in East Moline. Pieces from it are displayed at different times in 25 Deere locations across North America.

“We have 10 snowmobiles at the training centre in Grimsby (Ontario),” he says. “We’re designed to have large parts of our collection out on exhibit at any given time.”

Seeking specific artifacts

Dahlstrom adds he receives about six offers a week from people interested in donating or selling items to the Deere archives.

“We look at those things and balance everything from, ‘Do we have gaps in the historical record we need to fill? Is this a significant piece? Do we have space for it?’ That’s a growing concern — do we have somewhere to put it? The size of the equipment is making it really difficult. So I think we evaluate things differently now than we did 20 or 30 years ago.”

While the archive actively looks for specific items that fill those gaps in its collection, when those items become available, it often defers to individuals who would also like to add them to their own private collections.

“We also have the luxury of incredibly enthusiastic fans and collectors,” he says. “There are things we’ve passed on that have come up for auction, because the last thing I want to do is get something and put it in storage where no one is going to see it for the next decade. I’d much rather it be in private hands with someone who’s going to take it from show to show. We don’t need to own all of it.”

Among the items high on the archives’ wish list are early copies of Deere’s The Furrow magazine. They have a pretty complete collection from 1897 onward, but nothing earlier. The magazine began publication in 1895.

An example of a uniform of the John Deere Battalion from the Second World War is also being sought.

In that war, “the John Deere Battalion was formed from about 900 employees and dealer employees,” Dahlstrom says. “They served mostly in France and Belgium during the war. They repaired tanks, trucks, tractors and things. We have scrapbooks. I’d love a John Deere Battalion member uniform for the collection. Anything that personalizes who we are as a company I think is really important and significant.”

Dahlstrom is a historian in his own right and has published a book on the history of machinery evolution as farming moved from horses to tractors, including Deere’s role in it. He says after spending so much time detailing the history of the company founder John Deere and reading his personal papers and writings that others said about him during his lifetime, he believes he has come to know him.

“I’ve grown to know John Deere over my career here. We’re pals,” he says jokingly.

So would John Deere be surprised to find out that the company that bears his name today has become a global corporation with sales exceeding US$30 billion a year?

“I spent a lot of time thinking about this,” Dahlstrom says. “I think he wouldn’t be surprised … that is what set him apart from his competition. He built his first plow in 1837. In 1860 there were over 2,000 plow manufacturers in the United States alone.

“He survived that and evolved out of that for a reason. It’s because he had this constant focus on what we call continuous improvement today. By the time a competitor came out with something similar to him, he’d already moved on to something else.

“I see him as this guy who’s really enthusiastic about tech, which is really hard to put someone in the 19th century in that view. But I think that’s who he was.”

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“With a dedicated presence in Ottawa, AEM will be a more effective advocate and convener, ensuring equipment manufacturers get a seat at the table during critical policy discussions about the future of the Canadian economy,” said the association’s president and CEO Megan Tanel in a news release this week.

The association has hired Alexandre Mattard-Michaud as director of government affairs in Canada. Mattard-Michaud will be responsible for representing association members and industry interests to lawmakers.

A presence in Ottawa will help the association advocate for “pro-growth policies that help the Canadian men and women of the equipment manufacturing industry better build, power, and feed the world,” as Parliament looks at long-term economic and industrial policy, it said.

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Almost a century ago, Winston Churchill, speaking of Russia, described the land of czars and Cossacks as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” That’s as good a way as any to describe the present tariff wars and what they mean for farm equipment, farm productivity and farms themselves.

Prices are soaring, with every tractor or harrow, front end loader or auger priced to include tariffs. Repair parts? Tough to say. Statistically, a third of U.S. farm machinery is exported to Canada and thus subject to Canadian tariffs.

What we know is that as of Aug. 1, 2025, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order raising the tariffs from 25 to 35 per cent on products that do not qualify as originating goods under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), farming got a lot more complicated. A US$800 per day per person exemption or allowance for goods shipped to the U.S. from Canada was eliminated effective Aug. 29, 2025. So much for tax management by parts shopping.

The prices of crops influence the prices of gear used to plant, grow and harvest them. Prices at the curb depend on tariffs, if any. You could say, “OK, we’ll add 30 per cent or whatever the charge is and make that the final price,” but that isn’t the whole story.

Each week Trump makes new tariff announcements. The tariffs are a charge on goods’ sale prices, billed as part of a sale and remitted to the U.S. Treasury. Newspapers and broadcasters play the U.S. and, for that matter, Canadian reciprocal tariffs as bad news, but there is unspoken good news as well:

• Tariffs may insulate domestic manufacturers from some competition from similar imported products.
• Tariffs on goods impair the desirability of imports, effectively boosting the sales and bottom lines of competing Canadian manufacturers. Tariffs widen price differences and thus give nominal support to the competitiveness of Canadian equipment. Though components of machinery may be more expensive after imposition of tariffs, the final price, including profits, may be higher as well. Obviously, this is a case-by-case situation.
• Tariffs make existing machinery on the farm worth more. These are balance sheet adjustments and the implicit price gains are not taxable until sale. In the U.S., the Milwaukee-based Association of Equipment Manufacturers reported that for Canada there was an 11.7 per cent decline in sales of new 100-hp-or-over 2WD tractors and a small, 2.2 per cent gain in sales of new 40- to 100-hp tractors for the period to the end of July 2025.

Data on sales of farm equipment combine current prices and buyer/seller expectations of future prices. Tariffs may increase buyer eagerness to get deals done this year or next if prices threaten to be higher next year or later this year. They may delay supply of old equipment coming to market on trades as farmers extend the life of equipment with repairs or parts replacements.

These predictions reflect the costs of uncertainty, for U.S. tariffs are as much threats as realized and embedded charges. That said, the rational path for farmers — and, for that matter, other businesses with cross-border exposure — is to delay purchases of new equipment, to invest in maintenance and upgrades of existing equipment, and to buy made-in-Canada equipment where possible. Delayed purchase and extended operating life are effectively the same as a reduction in annualized cost. The risk is that future prices may rise with inflation. It’s today’s capital costs versus tomorrow’s balance sheet. But uncertainty, which is the issue, is not a cost until it is billed.

The rationale is clear: every product has a profit margin — paying a foreign vendor’s or manufacturer’s costs plus embedded tariffs is adding insult to injury. Why pay cost plus profits enhanced by tariffs if comparable equipment can be had, new or used, without tariff-boosted profits for foreign manufacturers or vendors?

To date, farm equipment prices have been falling in response to documented tariffs and undocumented fears of worse to come. Equipment prices have been reported as soft in 2025 as sales slow. Old equipment prices should rise, yet auction records for 2025 to early August show that farmers are not just shopping for good used gear, but staying on the sidelines altogether.

None of this is really conclusive, for U.S. tariffs may be adjusted up or down, farmers may shop more on the back lot for used gear and less in showrooms for new gear, extend co-operative arrangements with neighbouring farms and farmers, or even depart farming with sales and available tax breaks.

There is a farmland capital gains tax exemption per owner for farms personally owned. That works out as $1 million for the farmer and a similar amount for the spouse if they actively farm with both spouses on the title and with the assumption that each actively farms or manages. Renting the land is not active management but taking risks with the land. It’s being seen as taking risks that qualifies for the exemption. This is a tax-cushioned way out of the tariff dilemma. It may be the best way out for farms impaired by U.S. and even higher Chinese tariffs on crops such as canola and products such as dressed pork.

Politics have made farming tariffs as vital and as essential as actually growing the crops.

The post How U.S. tariffs are changing farm costs in Canada appeared first on Grainews.

However, Massey fell on hard times in the 1980s and many dealerships didn’t survive.

In the late 1990s, AGCO came into the picture. It bought Massey and eventually brought Fendt into its corporate fold as well. It then took over Caterpillar’s Challenger brand and merged those yellow-belted tractors into the Fendt line.

AGCO has since acknowledged that re-establishing a broad dealer network to effectively sell all that equipment has been a top priority — and a challenge.

One Prairie dealership chain that has been evolving and growing with AGCO is AgWest. It had been part of the Toromont Cat dealership chain until Dutch investment firm Zweegers Equipment Group bought it in 2023.

Under that new ownership, AgWest has expanded its market presence.

“We expanded to Saskatchewan,” says Derrick Webster, AgWest’s director of finance.

“We acquired two AGCO locations, one in Yorkton and one in Weyburn. They used to be Agriterra. It was a natural fit for us.”

This summer, AgWest announced it was building two new dealership buildings in Manitoba to better service its expanding market area — one in Brandon and the other in Russell.

“In Brandon, we were still operating inside the same building as Toromont,” he says.

“There was a collaborative agreement to allow us to do that, but we need to be out on our own. We didn’t have enough service bays. We’ll be up to six, plus wash bays, in the new location.”

The Russell and Brandon buildings will look nearly identical, with the Brandon location becoming fully operational by February and the Russell store roughly two months after that.

“We’ve also opened a small location in Benito,” Webster adds.

“There’s a lot of market there that needs service. Part of that long-term plan is to increase facilities, increase parts stock on hand and have more technicians available.”

Besides the Agco brands, AgWest has been selling Claas combines, which until a few years ago were marketed in North America wearing the Caterpillar name on their flanks as a result of a marketing agreement between the two companies.

However, Cat has since exited that deal, removing itself entirely from the ag equipment market. Claas has since taken over North American distribution of its equipment under its own banner.

However, that has left a mixed-up dealership landscape as original equipment manufacturers establish — or re-establish — themselves in the Canadian market.

It has also affected AgWest’s business. It sells only Claas combines in its Morden store, with a competing AGCO dealer nearby. On the other side of the province, in Russell, it sells a full lineup of Claas equipment. Its two Saskatchewan stores sell only Agco equipment.

Webster acknowledges that isn’t an ideal situation because it would be easier to have one consistent market approach across all outlets. However, other legacy dealerships exist, and AgWest, along with the OEMs, has decided to respect those existing business relationships.

Over time, AgWest’s association with Claas may expand further, Webster said.

“Claas is interested in supporting our growth into full product line support. Obviously, there’s a lot of balancing because there are other players at stake. They’re trying to balance their obligations as well.”

Last year, Agco revealed a plan to help further expand its North American dealership reach through mobile service and a stronger online presence, rather than expecting dealers to invest in brick-and-mortar locations. However, Webster says that decision hasn’t really had an impact on AgWest’s plans to have a permanent presence in more communities.

“For anyone in a small community, it’s a positive feeling that you’re putting roots down. We believe that will pay dividends with our customers. As we invest in their communities, we hope they’ll invest in our equipment.

“Right now, we run 15 heavy-spec service trucks plus light service trucks. That’s always been part of the service offering we have.”

In all, the total cost of the new buildings is approximately $11 million. As well, AgWest will need to add more staff to its roster as it increases its parts inventory to better serve the regions, and it expects to add to its sales staff as it grows its position in the market.

“It goes to show the commitment the (Dutch) ownership group has in coming here,” Webster says.

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