The Read From Louisville: Uncertain

By the time this column appears across the country, the annual Commodity Classic will be in full swing. This means the winter trade show season will soon become a distant reflection in the industry’s rearview mirror. Still, these events can help provide market watchers with some indication of how the upcoming agricultural season might play out.

At the moment, I would say the picture for 2017 is a bit mixed at best. When I was at the recent National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, KY, dozens of folks there asked me over and over “what was I hearing” about the state of agriculture. My response was simply this: “It’s all over the place.”

Advertisement

On one hand, this event drew its normal, large agricultural crowd (in excess of 300,000 spread out over four days) and there seemed to be plenty of buying discussions going on.

Top Articles
TFI: Phosphate and Potash Are Critical Minerals, Senate Bill to Solidify

If you attended the National Farm Machinery Show, how would you now describe your view for the 2017 outlook?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

On the other hand, there were few new product introductions at the show. Normally, the National Farm Machinery Show sees dozens of new products being launched. This year, most companies told me they were waiting for the summer shows to roll around before debuting their new pieces of Big IRON — which means these items won’t make their market introductions until the 2018 growing season gets into full swing. Also troubling, a few high profile ag retail equipment manufacturers such as Raven Industries decided to “skip” exhibiting at this year’s National Farm Machinery Show in favor of “spending our money on more direct marketing efforts to our customers.”

Perhaps as the season gets underway, the companies adopting these “wait-and-see” attitudes towards the 2017 agricultural marketplace will begin moving into either positive or negative territory. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

0
Advertisement