CropLife 100: The Colors Of Custom Application
December 5, 2014 It’s funny how important colors can be in agriculture. For several years now, fine shades of yellow corn placed inside grain bins has added green-colored money to the bank accounts of growers. And during the past few years, green-colored herbicide-resistant weeds have put plenty of green into the pockets of custom applicators and ag retailers.
This was certainly the case during 2014. For the third year in a row, CropLife 100 ag retailers recorded more than $1 billion in income from their custom application work. In all, according to 2014 survey respondents, the custom application category saw its sales volume increase from $1.2 billion in 2013 to $1.3 billion. Market share for the category also improved, up 1% to 5% of all crop inputs/service sales among CropLife 100 retailers.
Naturally, this kind of attention to any category is bound to lead to other avenues of spending. For most ag retailers to keep pace with the increased demand for custom application work from their grower-customers, investing in new equipment for their self-propelled sprayer fleets has become something of an annual rite of passage. According to ag retail equipment manufacturers, the past several years have seen increased machine sales each and every season as companies have jockeyed to maintain their leadership positions in custom application vs. their competition.
“The strong agricultural economy has meant plenty of new equipment purchases since the end of 2009,” said Mark Sharitz, director of marketing, application equipment at AGCO Corp., at a recent industry trade event. “As a result, companies have expanded their product offerings along the way.”
But whose company colors have been the most popular? Are sprayers at ag retail outlets sporting AGCO yellow, John Deere green or Case IH red?
Eight years ago, CropLife® magazine began asking this very question as part of its annual CropLife 100 survey of the nation’s top ag retailers. Obviously, since many ag retailers have multiple manufacturer products in their fleets, the survey allowed respondents to choose as many different ones as were represented on their outlet grounds.
During those early survey years, AGCO yellow proved to be the most popular color among CropLife 100 self-propelled sprayer fleets. Annually over the first five years or so, AGCO would typically lead among all other manufacturers with approximately 80% of CropLife 100 sprayers sporting the company’s familiar yellow for Ag-Chem and while (then yellow/orange) for Spra-Coupe.
However, as the agricultural industry entered the decade of the 2010s, one of AGCO’s biggest rivals, John Deere, began making a serious push into ag retailer courtyards. From a market presence in the high 50% range, John Deere sprayers have steadily increased their numbers in CropLife 100 ag retail fleets. By 2012 and 2013, green-colored sprayers were pushing the 75% to 80% mark among all units, just a hair behind AGCO’s marketplace lead.
Neck-And-Neck
So, given this background, what happened in 2014, you ask? Basically, the market for self-propelled sprayers between AGCO and John Deere is a virtual tie. According to 2014 CropLife 100 survey respondents, 83% of their sprayers now come in AGCO’s signature yellow, down 2% from the 2013 total. Meanwhile, John Deere’s green-colored sprayers are present in 82% of the nation’s ag retail outlets within the CropLife 100 — an improvement of 2% from the prior year’s figure.
Meanwhile, red-colored sprayers from Case IH continue to hold down the No. 3 spot among self-propelled sprayers on CropLife 100 ag retail lots. During the 2014 season, respondents to the survey indicated that Patriots and their Case IH cousins were present in 68% of their fleets, a loss of 5% from the 73% mark the company’s sprayers achieved during 2013.
Of course, the really interesting race among self-propelled sprayer manufacturers in 2014 occurred just below the “Big Three.” For the past several years, CropLife 100 survey respondents have tended to flip-flop among the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 manufacturers when it came to sprayers in their fleets, with Hagie Manufacturing, GVM Inc. and Miller-St. Nazianz annually switching slots among themselves.
But during 2014, one of these three pulled away from its brethren. According to 2014 CropLife 100 respondents, 27% now have yellow-colored Hagie sprayers during custom application work in their grower-customers’ fields. This is a big jump from 2013, when Hagie sprayers were present in only 15% of CropLife 100 sprayer fleets.
In contrast, the battle for positions No. 5 and No. 6 continues in earnest. According to 2014 survey respondents, 14% of their sprayers fleets contained white/black-colored units from GVM while 12% had red-colored Miller sprayers in their operations. For GVM, this represented a decline of 6% from its 2013 percentage. Meanwhile, Miller’s percentage improved 4%.
Going into 2015, the numbers shouldn’t change all that much among these players. According to the survey, 58% of respondents plan to buy John Deere sprayers, 55% are making AGCO purchase plans, 35% are looking at Case IH units and 8% are thinking Hagie. Significantly, however, 17% of CropLife 100 retailers have no plans to buy any new sprayers during 2015, an increase of 5% from the 2013-14 survey figure
Precision Ag Green
Besides self-propelled sprayer activity, ag retailers spent a good portion of 2014 growing their precision agriculture equipment business as well. According to the 2014 CropLife 100 survey, the nation’s top ag retailers recorded more than $214 million in precision ag-related revenues during the year, an increase of 32% from the 2013 total of $162 million. Most respondents credit not only a renewed interest in boosting yields and new technologies, but the ongoing FieldScripts program from Monsanto Co. (and similar programs now coming on-line from other providers) for keeping interest in precision agriculture at an all-time high.
However, when it comes to new technology, not everything is keeping the same level of love from CropLife 100 ag retailers. Take unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for instance.
Since bursting onto the scene a few years ago, UAVs have generated loads of interest and press. Whole trade shows have sprung up to showcase their capabilities (including UAV companies having a huge presence at the annual InfoAg Conference in St. Louis, MO). In fact, precision ag industry experts at CropLife’s sister publication PrecisionAg magazine named UAVs as the No. 1 technology trend in precision agriculture for 2014. And all this buzz is centered on a technology that still can’t be used in crop fields by businesses just yet (at least not until the Federal Aviation Administration completes its rules and regulations guidelines, probably by the end of 2015 or early 2016).
Given this level of excitement, CropLife asked CropLife 100 ag retailers if they were planning on employing UAVs in their operations once federal guidelines for their use are finalized. Based upon the buzz, we expected this percentage to be quite high, certainly over 50%.
But we were wrong. According to 2014 CropLife 100 survey, only 47% of respondents are currently planning to use UAVs in their businesses in the future. Another 11% weren’t certain yet if they would employ them. Significantly, however, 42% indicated they had no plans to use them.
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