How Dealers Deal with Ag's Business Cycles

摘要

Dealers can't plan their way around ag's ups & downs, but they can prepare for the best & worst by watching the big trends & paying attention to the little details. With the exception of 2009 — a year that, in retrospect, wasn't all that bad for sales of farm machinery — dealers have experienced 5 remarkable years of consistently strong unit sales. This has surprised many dealers, even the most optimistic ones. A Colorado dealer told Farm Equipment recently, "I've lived through two bad cycles (in the 1980s and '90s) so I'm really enjoying this one." The reason he appreciates it so much is because he, like many dealers, hadn't seen such a strong run of machinery sales over such an extended period of time for maybe a decade or two. And, of course, he understands it won't last forever. That's a given in this cyclical business.