Due to the seasonal nature of agricultural equipment buying and manufacturing, implement makers and retailers only started to really feel the effects of pandemic-related supply chain issues at the end of 2020 and in the spring of 2021.
“It’s becoming very difficult to get new equipment in, and that has started probably, for the most part, in the spring of this year and from then on,” Mark Roberts of Benes Service in David City said.
A full service ag dealership, Benes sells new and used farm equipment and parts, but the problem persists for manufacturers further up the supply chain, at least as far as Gordon Kosch is concerned. Kosch is part of a family hay equipment manufacturing business in Columbus, the Kosch Company, which incorporated in 1947.
“We started seeing price increases coming on pretty hard before the end of (2020),” Kosch said. “Our product predominantly is used June, July, August and after that it starts to taper way off because they’re done haying. Then we’re in our planning stages, looking at what we’re going to build and what we need to produce our product, and that’s when we started seeing the extreme price increases on materials.”
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It’s not just the prices, though.
“It’s the availability of components to put everything together,” Roberts said. “It can be anything from raw materials to computers to tires to batteries. Any day you don’t know what they’re going to be short on to make something and put it together.”
It doesn’t seem to matter where a product comes from, either. Roberts said he buys from warehouses in many different parts of the world, but that delays and availability are problems no matter how far away they are.
These days, Roberts said, a product’s projected arrival date means nothing. Kosch indicated the same.
“There’s a gear box that is critical to our product,” Kosch said. “It was supposed to be here in February. They moved it to April, then they moved it to June. Well, in June we should’ve had our product to our dealers and end users.”
Not being able to get equipment and replacement parts is a big concern for producers, too.
“A lot of equipment parts are getting short, and even…trucking companies are struggling for parts for their trucks to keep them running,” Butler County farmer Daniel Hilger said during a Nov. 8 event at the Platte County Extension Office, 2715 13th St. in Columbus. “Those two things are going to be a major factor in the year to come, I think. How long that’s going to last, I don’t know. Hopefully not too long.”
Even used equipment – which Benes usually gets by way of trade-ins — is harder to come by.
“The used, if it’s good, is going pretty quickly,” Roberts said.
Roberts added that old and new equipment may be cannibalized for parts, too.
“The new stuff (is where) we do more cannibalizing because we can get new parts put back on if we’ve got a new piece sitting here,” Roberts said. “We’ll do whatever we can to keep everybody running.”
Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Banner-Press. Reach her via email at [email protected].
