Since I rumbled on about the food selections at this year’s Midwest AG Industries Exposition (MAGIE) in last week’s enewsletter, I’ve had a few readers ask me what my take-away from the event itself was. Let’s review.
As the kick-off to a series of ag equipment shows that stretch from mid-August to mid-October, MAGIE usually gives a pretty good gauge of how the ag equipment marketplace is doing, and how it might do moving forward into the coming planting year. This year was no exception.
Now for a couple of weeks, I’ve talked about how the general economy looks to be slipping back into something that mirrors the down times of the Great Recession. Unemployment has stayed high, housing sales are near historic lows and the overall pace of manufacturing has slowed down significantly.
But ag equipment appears to be another story. There were several new equipment launches at MAGIE 2010 including big rig makers Equipment Technologies and GVM – always a good sign that manufacturers are feeling confident about the future. Other companies such as John Deere and Hagie Manufacturing didn’t introduce new products at MAGIE, but plan to at this week’s Farm Progress show in Boone, IA. Furthermore, from what I’ve heard through the new products grapevine, there are several more new items on the way between now and the end of the year.
Of course, ag equipment makers aren’t exactly ready to declare the down times of 2008 and 2009 over just yet. When I asked some of them to describe what kind of year 2010 has been for their companies, many just shrugged. “It’s been okay, sales wise, but compared to the past two years, that’s not saying much,” said most. “But on the plus side, we are keeping busy, and that’s not a bad thing.”
In my book, any manufacturer that is “keeping busy” has a bright future ahead, especially when the alternative is “just waiting for something to happen.” We’ve all heard this phrase uttered way too often over the past two years.
