American farmers say they are being squeezed not only by rising costs but also by ongoing restrictions that prevent them from fixing their own equipment, leaving them stuck with hefty bills and long wait times for repairs they could often handle on their own.
Virginia farmer John Boyd Jr. told FOX Business that when one of his John Deere tractors has a diagnostic trouble code, displayed to indicate problems, his equipment shuts down completely until a technician arrives. It can take weeks to schedule a service appointment, causing him to lose precious time that could be spent in the field, he said.
“We really need the right to repair our own equipment and access to technology to do so,” Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, told Fox Business. “Money is tight for farmers. … It would help cut through a lot of red tape.”
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Making the situation more frustrating, he said many of the issues are simple fixes that farmers are capable of handling themselves. They often just do not have access to the software to diagnose and repair or can become at risk of voiding their warranty if they attempt to fix it themselves, according to Boyd Jr.
Boyd Jr. also said that equipment service appointments can cost as much as $1,000 — a massive bill for farmers that are already struggling with rising costs of inputs like seed and fertilizer, he said.
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Farmers face an estimated $3 billion in annual losses from tractor downtime and an additional $1.2 billion in excess repair costs due to their reliance on dealerships for repairs, according to a 2023 report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
“I should not have to wait two weeks for a service technician to come out here and put a damn alternator on my tractor, which I have the skill set to do, and be put on a waiting list,” Boyd Jr. said.
Boyd Jr. argued that if farmers buy their agricultural equipment but are unable to fix it themselves, it raises the question: who really owns it — the farmer or the manufacturer?
“We understand that it’s a business decision for them, but it’s also a business decision for us,” Boyd Jr. said. “… We need America’s farmers, and we need support, especially in the troubling times and the months that are going to come to pass.”
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The Agricultural Right to Repair Act, first introduced in February 2022 by U.S. Senator Jon Tester, seeks to give farmers and independent repair shops access to necessary diagnostic and repair tools. In January, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Deere & Company, accusing the manufacturer of unfair practices that increased repair costs for farmers while also preventing them from “the ability to make timely repairs on critical farming equipment.”
In July, John Deere launched its Operations Center PRO Service, a subscription offering diagnostic and repair tools, machine details and remote code access. Pricing starts at $195 per machine annually, with higher amounts for fleets and service businesses.
“The launch of Operations Center PRO Service is a significant milestone that adds to John Deere’s existing tools, and it reaffirms our longstanding commitment to empowering customers to choose how they repair their equipment,” Denver Caldwell, vice president of aftermarket and customer support at John Deere, told FOX Business in an email. “Importantly, our development of these tools reaffirms John Deere’s support of customer self-repair. We view continuously enhancing self-repair as consistent with our mission to ensure John Deere customers have the best machine ownership experience possible.”
In 2023, the American Farm Bureau Federation and John Deere also signed a memorandum of understanding to give farmers and independent mechanics greater access to repair tools and information.
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