Columbia Basin, Ephrata, WA | jd8850 - 5/4/2026 11:17
Yes its laughable to say its as bad as the 80s.
And its also laughable to go by what just 1 JD dealer says.
There are hundreds of JD dealers.
And there are hundreds of other dealers as well.
I doubt 1% are saying its like the 80s.
Most dealers have flourished right along with the farmers and have increased their assets and paid down debt.
This could easily be worse than the 80’s, we’re all just primed to deal with lean times so it doesn’t look as bad. The 80’s only seemed so bad because the 70’s were SO good. There was money to be made in the 80’s, just not as much as in the 70’s, and not enough to cover the interest if you made the mistake of having excessive variable debt. Farmers might be able to struggle through the 80’s by adding some sows, wife getting an off farm job, or putting some acres in CRP. Thinking any of those could save a farm now is just laughable. You can hardly sell the pigs from a small sow herd, CRP that paid $40 in the 80’s now pays $42 with fewer cost shares, and the wife already has a job in town because someone needed to get health insurance coverage.
We taught and equipped the world to do what we do, and they’re doing it cheaper. We aren’t competing against some guy with an ox for tillage, they have a $3 per hour guy running 12,000 hour exported 8410 tractor and 7200 planter, and getting the work done cheaper than a $100k per year guy with an 8r410 and high speed can here.
Edited by Big Ben 5/4/2026 14:05
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Worst farm economy since the 80s
