Farmers Rejecting Modern Machinery

After serving a few years overseas in the military, the cars being driven in America seemed quite conspicuous. Our vehicles are big, shiny, and expensive. Even in other rich countries, such as Japan and Western Europe, the cars are simpler, smaller, and boxier. It was quite clear that, compared to other countries, we spend a lot of money on vehicles, for little gain in practicality (and probably a loss). I returned around the time of the Great Recession. For two years I had heard endlessly about the tough times, people out of work, kicked out of their homes, etc. I was then surprised to see the highways not just full of $50,000 trucks and SUVs, but numerous toys as well: RVs, sport cars, powerboats, motorcycles, and the like. There were even trikes!

I see something similar these days whenever I drive through the countryside. The farm equipment is very expensive. Farmers like to leave their tracked Cat tractors and half million dollar John Deere combines out for people to see. Such vehicles are many times more expensive than the shiny passenger vehicles driving by, and could be traded for two or maybe three decent homes in the area. I always wonder if such monstrous modern machines are worth the investment. I assume the farmers have done their numbers, although there is reason to wonder if they actually haven't and the pricey machines are not economical.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that many farmers now believe they are poor investments, and are instead buying up 40-year-old machinery.

Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren’t as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software.

This past summer I put out an article called Maintenance Free Means Unmaintainable. This was in the context of windows, as I was looking to replace my 50-year-old wooden windows with modern, more efficient windows. The tipoff came in the form of door-to-door window salesmen, who were aggressive - which meant there were juicy profit margins to be had. It didn't take a lot of number crunching to realize that the plastic replacement windows - with their 20-year lifespans - would never recoup their costs in energy savings before being tossed into a landfill. Not only are the old wooden windows more economical, they are more environmentally conscious. (The major upside to modern windows is that they are easier to clean. That may be a perk to lazy people, but not to me. Because I'm very lazy and rarely clean windows anyway.)

My old storm windows - particularly those on the southern exposure, were in very rough shape. Exposed wood, cracked glass, and sections where the glazing had decayed to nothing at all... plus some shoddy maintenance by the previous owners. After watching a handful of YouTube videos and a trip (or five) to the hardware store, I was able to strip the windows, replace broken glass, sand, glaze, and re-paint all of them by hand - for the total cost of probably a couple hundred bucks and lots of hours in the garage. I'm now trained in home window maintenance and can handle most common problems that will arise. On the other hand, what would I have done if one of the new fancy windows cracked and leaked out all the argon gas? I could do nothing. Perhaps hire a window technician to take a look at it but, even then, it may turn out that the whole sash must be thrown into a landfill and replaced with a new one. A similar trend occurs in modern farming.

There are some good things about the software in newer machines, said Peterson. The dealer will get a warning if something is about to break and can contact the farmer ahead of time to nip the problem in the bud. But if something does break, the farmer is powerless, stuck in the field waiting for a service truck from the dealership to come out to their farm and charge up to $150 per hour for labor.

The trend across the board is towards products that are either completely unmaintainable, or at least unmaintainable to the owner. It's not just the money spent on technicians, but the loss of control over the operation. The farmer finds himself at the mercy of the technician. Hopefully he gets out here soon. Hopefully he's not an idiot. The only justification for the massive machinery is that planting & harvesting windows can be short. The longer it takes, the more the risk of a change in the weather. Not only is his equipment liable to break down right when he needs it most, by everyone else's will too... and they'll all need a technician. A few days' delay could risk the kind of disaster that the pricey machines were supposed to prevent anyway.

If I have a modern-window problem in the house, I must hope that there is a competent repairman in the area who charges a fair rate and isn't booked out for half the summer. Then I must still dedicate time to the task by being available to supervise the operation - probably taking off work to do so, at a time that may not be ideal. On the other hand, I can repair wooden storm windows at my leisure, on nights & weekends when the garage temperature is bearable. Having control of the operation is an even bigger benefit than the money saved on parts & labor.

There is also a pride of ownership aspect that doesn't come with hiring out the work. It is far more gratifying to have labored to provide a home for the family, rather than only writing a check. I get more satisfaction now gazing at the house I've spent so many hours on, even than if a professional had come and done more quality work (which is often not the case, in my experience). The farmers feel a similar motivation in their operations.

“That goes against the pride of ownership, plus your lifetime of skills you’ve built up being able to fix things,” Peterson said.

The major perks of farming are the independence and self-reliance that comes with the job. Not one farmer out there wants to have to tell his wife that harvesting is on hold until the kid from the dealership can come bail him out with a firmware upgrade. He wants to say he's going to go do some impromptu welding, or rewire a switch, or anything but wait for a kid with an iPad.

We should take a note from the farmers in Minnesota. There is a hefty, invisible cost of unmaintainable products, and most new products these days are less maintainable than the old ones.