RealAg LIVE! with Curt Blades of AEM

(Kara Oosterhuis/RealAgriculture)

There’s a lot of stuff happening with equipment lately — from sales numbers, to what’s going on with the shortage of components, to price increases.

To explain it all, for today’s RealAg LIVE! our host Shaun Haney is  joined by Curt Blades, senior vice president of ag services at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). AEM represents off-road equipment in North America, and has offices in Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and Ontario.

RealAg LIVE! streams every weekday at 3 pm E on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter!

SUMMARY

  • Ag, construction, forestry, mining and more!
  • Holy buckets might be our new favourite phrase
  • Four-wheel drive numbers, very strong, y’all
  • Combines and articulated 4-WD are thought of in the same sense — good indication of serious farm players. Those sales reflect how farmers are feeling
  • Parts! Chips! DEF! Steel!
  • Prices and availability are definitely under stress for plenty of things
  • Semi-conductors, raw material, and more are tougher to get
  • Inventory is pressed on plenty of pieces of equipment, trucks, cars, too
  • Supply chain disruptions are driven by a few things, including COVID
  • Complicated trade relationships don’t help
  • The age of the equipment plays a role in how tough it will be to find those parts
  • How many cars are waiting for that one last part?
  • What does AEM work on policy wise? Infrastructure!
  • Not just roads and bridges, but also broadband infrastructure
  • The balance of horsepower, fuel, biofuel, batteries et al is complicated
  • Is Tier 5 in the future?
  • If Tier 5 was the “solution” and that would make everyone happy, we’d be all in, but not convinced that’s the right move
  • Next gen power sources
  • Batteries, hydrogen, what else?
  • Right to repair issue is an emotional one
  • Equipment manufacturers do support farmers right to work on their equipment, but there are intellectual property and safety issues that they will not budge on, says Blades

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