A 104-year-old farmer’s $183,000 tractor sale tests a farm recovery

At 104, Donald “Shorty” Peterson thinks it’s about time to retire.

After more than seven decades of growing corn in Illinois, Peterson said he’s finally “tired of the work.” So he’s getting off the green-and-yellow Deere & Co. tractors and combines he’s been running. The farm equipment just went up for auction, and the timing couldn’t be more telling.

America’s aging farmers have been holding on to machinery for longer than usual as low crop prices and rising costs squeezed their finances. That drove total used-tractor inventories to the lowest in more than three years as of July, according to industry data cited by Kristen Owen, an Oppenheimer analyst. But after a prolonged downturn, there are signs things are bottoming out.

Like Peterson, more growers are sending equipment to the auction block. Normally, an influx of machinery coming up for sale would weigh on prices. This time, the market has been so starved of equipment that buyers are absorbing the new supply and bids are staying strong, especially as farmers weigh used machines against pricier new ones.

Meanwhile, farmer sentiment is improving, and Deere said this month it’s seeing a boost in machinery orders. Fueling the brighter outlook, crop markets are finally recovering. Global supply concerns have sent benchmark corn and wheat futures to three-year highs, and soybeans are near the highest since 2024.

“I haven’t seen this combination of factors in my 36 years of tracking,” said Greg Peterson (no relation to Shorty), who’s known as “Machinery Pete” and is the author of a used-equipment index by the same name.

Farmers are tracking grain prices closely, and recent rallies are adding to the optimism, Peterson said. Corn futures have jumped about 15% in August, on track for the biggest monthly gain since 2021 and taking prices above the key $5-a-bushel level. Wheat is up roughly 20% this month, and soybeans have added more than 8%.

Peterson pointed to a Deere tractor from 1992 that fetched $136,000 at a recent retirement auction in Minnesota, the highest value for that model since a record sale of $139,360 in October 2023.

Positive news “translates immediately” in the equipment world, Peterson said. The winning bid for Shorty’s 2013 Deere 8235R tractor was $183,750, including a fee for buying online. That’s more than $13,000 above the highest price from this year, according to Peterson, who described the auction as a “strong sale.”

The bigger test is whether the newfound optimism translates into rising sales of new machines, not just strength in the used-equipment market.

Manufacturers Deere and CNH Industrial NV have been cutting production and working down inventories as sales slumped in recent years. But they’ve both recently cited green shoots in the agricultural economy. CNH, which makes brands including Case IH and New Holland, is calling 2026 the bottom, with a recovery expected to begin next year. Industry leader Deere recently lifted its profit outlook for the current year.

Still, it may take an even steeper rise in crop prices to spur a meaningful recovery in sales, said Andy Campbell, director of insights at farm-equipment intelligence firm Tractor Zoom. A surge in machinery demand in 2022 came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent crop prices soaring, giving farmers more spending power.

“The supply has continued to come down, but we’re still trying to find the bottom,” Campbell said of the machinery market. “It’s moved from a supply-driven economy to a demand-driven one.”

The recent gains for corn prices have been driven in part by a worsening outlook for U.S. yields. That means not all growers will be able to take full advantage of the rally. And farmers are still recovering from years of squeezed finances. Profitability has been sliding since net farm income peaked in 2023. High costs for tractors, seeds, fertilizer and fuel have left many expecting to lose money. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates losses for the major row crops this year at $31 billion.

Those tensions will be on display this week at the Farm Progress Show, billed as the nation’s largest outdoor agriculture show. Rows of gleaming tractors, combines and sprayers will be showcased just north of Des Moines, Iowa. The show kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 1.

The latest machines use AI, cameras and satellite connections to plant seeds with extreme precision or even plow a field autonomously with an empty tractor seat. But those advances, sometimes accompanied by subscription costs, can make already-expensive machinery even harder for cash-strapped growers to justify.

When Shorty Peterson started in the 1950s, his fields produced about 80 to 100 bushels of corn per acre. “Now we get over 200 bushels,” he said. Advances in machinery helped drive that transformation — and helped him remain in the field long enough to witness it.

Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick will be among the crowd at the Farm Progress Show. He’s eager to see what the new technology promises, but like many producers, he’s also cautious because he’s “been burned before.”

Pitstick likens buying new farm machinery to purchasing a mobile phone: There’s little reason to rush for the newest model when the old one still works. “They’re nice, but they’re not mandatory,” he said, adding that if corn prices stay strong, equipment purchases could move higher by the end of the year.

“It’s an overall better mood in farm country,” Pitstick said. “It feels a little better with the rally in prices, but we’re still trying to heal from the low margins of the past few years.”