Sprayer Fleets Were Diversified in 2024 for Top U.S. Ag Retailers
December 9, 2024 
By most accounts, the 2024 growing season was less than stellar for the nation’s self-propelled equipment manufacturers. Among the major players in particular — John Deere, Fendt/AGCO, and Case IH/Miller/New Holland — sales started out the year slow and remained that way for the majority of the calendar. Indeed, during the fall months, with quarterly sales dropping at most companies, rounds of worker layoffs dominated the news for these equipment makers.
And in one sense, this market sluggishness in new self-propelled sprayer demand shouldn’t have been a complete surprise. One year ago, when CropLife® magazine was compiling the data from its 2023 CropLife 100 survey of the nation’s top ag retailers, 16% of respondents indicated that, because of volatile agricultural market conditions, their companies planned to “sit out” the 2024 growing season when it came to purchasing new self-propelled sprayers for their fleets.
Despite this negative news, however, one of the Big Three sprayer manufacturers did have some good news to share during the 2024 calendar year, managing to grow its overall market share. According to the 2024 CropLife 100 survey, 39% of the nation’s top ag retailers with sprayer fleets own John Deere models. This represented a 1% increase from the findings of the 2023 CropLife 100 survey, when this figure was 38%.
For the other two Big Three equipment makers, the 2024 news was more somber. Both Fendt/AGCO and Case IH/Miller/New Holland saw their market shares among CropLife 100 ag retailer fleets fall during the year. In Fendt/AGCO’s case, this decline was 2%, from 29% in 2023 to 27%. For Case IH/Miller/New Holland, the drop was 1%, from 25% in 2023 to 24%.
Smaller Company Good News
Still, there was some good news for self-propelled sprayer manufacturers in 2024 — at least for those with smaller market footprints compared with the Big Three. For several years now, the Big Three have steadily increased their overall market shares for self-propelled sprayers among the nation’s top ag retailers. In fact, during the 2023 growing season, the combined market share for John Deere, Fendt/AGCO, and Case IH/Miller/New Holland topped 92%. Much of this growth came at the expense of smaller self-propelled sprayers makers.
But according to the data from the 2024 CropLife 100 survey, smaller self-propelled sprayer manufacturers managed to make some market share gains from the Big Three among the nation’s top ag retailers. Based upon the results, these smaller players hold an overall 10% market share among CropLife 100 sprayer fleets, an improvement of 2% from the 2023 figure.
Of particular note was the performance of RBR Enterprise. According to 2024 CropLife 100 survey, the Byhalia, MS-based sprayer/spreader manufacturer grew its overall market share of CropLife 100 ag retailers’ self-propelled sprayer fleets from 1% to 4%.
“Being a mid-sized company, we are able to support our customer base,” said Jason Eaton, COO at RBR, during a recent interview with CropLife.
Future Purchases
Even better news for smaller equipment manufacturers such as RBR came from the question of which self-propelled sprayer manufacturers CropLife 100 ag retailers plan to buy products from during the 2025 growing season. According to the 2024 survey, 5% plan to look specifically to RBR for additions to their fleets next year. Another 2% plan to buy sprayers from such companies as GVM, Horsch, and Oxbo.
Among the Big Three players, a majority of respondents to the 2024 CropLife 100 survey (42%) say they plan to make sprayer purchases from John Deere. For Fendt/AGCO, the percentage of the nation’s top ag retailers planning to buy their models stands at 19%. Case IH/Miller/New Holland buyers are slightly behind this mark going into the 2025 growing season, with 18% of ag retailers planning to buy self-propelled sprayers from these companies.
Perhaps most importantly, the number of the nation’s top ag retailers that are planning to not make any self-propelled sprayers purchases in 2025 is falling. As we pointed out earlier in this article, the 2023 CropLife 100 survey had 16% of respondents not planning to buy any new spraying going into the 2024 growing season. However, according to the 2024 CropLife 100 survey data, this percentage will fall to 14% for the upcoming year. For ag equipment makers looking for some sales figures rebound during 2025, this 2% drop among non-buyers should represent some welcome news indeed.
Subscribe Today For
