Valuing tillage equipment and the impact of no-till farming practices
Changes in farming practices over time can cause shifts in value trends for classes of agricultural equipment. We asked Bill Albaugh what he looked at when assigning values to tillage equipment and if the adoption of no-till practices was causing a noticeable trend in tillage equipment values over time.
The onset of no-till has — and it hasn't, because there's people that dabble in it. When I say dabble in it, they'll go to no-till for a couple years, three years, five years — whatever the number is — and then they go uh oh, this isn't working real well. And then they go back to tillage practices. Those fluctuations have some impact, but not as much as what a person may think because there's just so many people changing their tillage practices over the years that it causes effects like this more so. But, basically when you're looking at tillage pieces to evaluate you're going to look at are there any welds or cracks? The paint quality — is it a piece from a size standpoint and row spacing that fits our area? If it doesn't fit your area, you don't want to take it in on trade because it's just going to sit out in the weeds. I'm being flat-out honest, there. If you're taking a piece of equipment where that tillage isn't practiced in your area, that's another red flag to not take it in on trade or to do something different. Visual inspections of tillage pieces is key because there are pieces that get welded. There are pieces that are cracked. There are pieces that are broken. Shovels and sweeps on tillage pieces, disk wear on disks — it's all huge expenses from a reconditioning standpoint that all enters into the valuation of tillage. You know, you get anything over 20 foot wide and freight issues when you go to resell it — you know, how are you going to get it from here to 150 miles from here — and going down the road. All these are things to take it into consideration when you value tillage equipment.
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