Application Equipment Report: It Is Easy Being Green For Top 100 Ag Retailers

CPS Washington Court House John Deere Sprayer

According to the 2015 CropLife 100 survey, the top three sprayer manufacturers have remained the same for the past five years. This year, however, there is a new market leader in ag retail courtyards.

On The Muppets television show, Kermit the Frog is famous for singing a song about the troubles he encounters in life by being green. In the ag retail equipment world, however, being green was apparently the best color to be in 2015.

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Since the early mid-2000s, CropLife® magazine has annually tracked how many self-propelled sprayers of a given manufacturer are in the fleets of the nation’s top ag retailers as part of its CropLife 100 survey. For the entire time this question has been asked, the leading manufacturer has always been AGCO Corp. (represented by the Ag-Chem and Spra-Coupe brand names), whose yellow-colored RoGators have been present on more than 80% of the country’s CropLife 100 outlet lots. During these early survey years, second and third place were traditionally held by green-colored sprayers from John Deere and red-colored models made by Case IH, which were normally present in approximately 60% of CropLife 100 sprayer fleets apiece.

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But once the calendar turned to 2010 — and agricultural market fortunes began to turn decidedly upward — the percentages for these three market leaders in self-propelled sprayers began to change somewhat. Flush with cash, the nation’s top ag retailers began buying increasing numbers of green and red sprayers to add to their fleets. By 2013, the market share difference between No. 1 AGCO and No. 3 Case IH had shrunk to 12% (85% vs. 73%). Furthermore, only 5% difference separated No. 1 AGCO from No. 2 John Deere (85% vs. 80%). From all indications, the stage was set for an all-out battle for the top spot in terms of bragging rights as the industry headed into 2014.

During 2014, however, the agricultural economy began to slow down from its market highs as commodity prices fell and grower-customers curbed their spending. In response, many ag retailers responded by cutting back on major equipment purchases. This caused the percentages for both AGCO and Case IH to drop for the year among CropLife 100 retailers (AGCO down from 85% in 2013 to 83% in 2014 and Case IH down from 73% in 2013 to 68% in 2014). Only John Deere saw its market share increase in 2014, from 80% in 2013 to 82%.

Of course, this meant that the difference in share between AGCO and John Deere had now shrunk to 1%. And with 58% of 2014 CropLife 100 respondents saying they planned to purchase new John Deere sprayers in 2015 (vs. the 55% that planned to buy AGCO units), it seemed as if 2015 could be the year when a new market leader emerged.

And it was.

Nothing Rules Like A Deere

According to the 2015 CropLife 100 ag retailers survey, the year was not particularly kind when it came to self-propelled sprayers sales. With reduced budgets and less income coming in from grower-customers, ag retailers apparently cut back on their equipment purchases quite a bit. In fact, none of the top three sprayer manufacturers saw their market shares increase during the year. Only one, John Deere, held steady, with its units being present in 82% of the nation’s CropLife 100 retailer fleets. However, because both AGCO and Case IH lost percentage points in 2015, John Deere sprayers are now the most numerous brands represented across outlet lots.

As for the former No. 1, AGCO, the company saw its market share among CropLife 100 retail fleets fall 7%, from 83% in 2014 to 76% today. This marks the smallest market share held by the Duluth, GA-based manufacturer since the CropLife 100 began tracking this statistic.

The numbers weren’t quite as off for No. 3 Case IH. According to the 2015 CropLife 100 survey, red-colored sprayers are present in 65% of the nation’s ag retail fleets, down 3% from 2014.

As for the rest of the six self-propelled sprayer manufacturers tracked in the CropLife 100 survey, 2015 was decidedly better. True, No. 4 Hagie Manufacturing did see the number of its units in ag retail fleets decline slightly, down 3% from 27% in 2014 to 24% in 2015. However, both No. 5 GVM and No. 6 Miller St.-Nazianz/New Holland recorded upticks. In GVM’s case, the company’s market presence among CropLife 100 retailers grew 1% to 15%. Meanwhile, Miller/New Holland’s market presence increased 2%, from 12% in 2014 to 14%.

Besides now leading the self-propelled sprayer pack in terms of total unit numbers, John Deere also continues to rank highest among CropLife 100 retailers when it comes to its service performance. When asked which manufacturer provided the best service for its units, 49% of respondents indicated John Deere was tops — an increase of 8% from 41% in 2014. Case IH finished second in this ranking at 29%, up 1% from the previous year. As for AGCO, it was ranked the best in service performance by 20% of 2015 CropLife 100 respondents, down 9% from the 2014 total.

Still Slow In 2016

Looking ahead to next year, it seems as if CropLife 100 retailers will again be reserved when it comes to making new self-propelled sprayer purchases. Among the six major manufacturers tracked in the survey, five are expected to see lower percentage sales during the 2016 season. The lone exception is Case IH. In 2015, 35% of CropLife 100 survey respondents planned to buy new sprayers from the Racine, WI-based manufacturer. Going into next year, however, this percentage has improved to 42%.

As for the rest, both Hagie and GVM have flat numbers when it comes to new purchases among CropLife 100 retailers (8% and 5%, respectively). Miller/New Holland purchases are planned by 4% of respondents, down 1% from the 2015 total. Meanwhile, new John Deere sprayers are planned for 54% of respondents, down from 58% in 2015, and new AGCO units are in the offing for 52% of CropLife 100 retailers, off 3% from 2015.

If there’s any positive news on the planned purchases front for sprayer manufacturers going into 2016, it’s the number of those retailers sitting on the sidelines. During the 2014 survey, 17% of CropLife 100 retailers said they planned no self-propelled sprayer purchases in 2015. For 2016, this percentage has dropped to 13%.

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Avatar for Josh Reid Josh Reid says:

There is a flaw in the way market-share data is reported for sprayers; not in this article, but in general. Sprayer chassis’ that have a fertilizer spreader mounted to them (and I’m not even counting “combo” units) are counted as sprayer sales when it comes to market share. So for every Deere and AGCO SPREADER that is purchased, those are being recorded as a sprayer sale. Case IH does not mount a spreader to their sprayer chassis so they get a significant ding when it comes to share for that reason. Case IH does sell a floater with spreader bed and those are prevalent in the commercial market but floater sales are not reported at all.

I would venture to say that Case IH actually has a larger share than Deere if these factors were taken into account. If you really looked at sprayers only at retail locations and excluded the sprayer chassis’ that had a spreader on it, these numbers in the article would not hold up.

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