re: John Deere, a U.S. Icon, Is Undermined by Tariffs and Struggling Farmers

Lmao at Deere, whose practices and heavy equipment costs are partly a cause of farmers struggling, struggling bc of struggling farmers

frick John Deere and if you'd have told 20 year old me that I'd ever say that I'd have said you had lost your damn mind

frick John Deere

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This and JD prices their equipment knowing their largest customer base is getting government subsidies. That’s why this isn’t affecting other brands.


What subsidies specifically?

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How specific do you want to get? Farmers receive almost 50% of their income from various government subsidies.

From commodity, crop insurance, energy, to conservation subsidies and actual price guarantees. (Wheat drops below $x/bushel, the government pays them the difference)

They also get cheap government loans.

Hell, the USDA even funds their R&D and somewhat their marketing.

The average American has no idea how many programs there are out there for farmers.

John Deere fricked themselves by trying to turn a tractor into an IT ecosystem / impossible to escape add on.

Maybe they shouldn’t have doubled their prices over the previous 8 years.

Equipment companies efficiencie$ have exceeded the field return$.
GMO seed$ have done same and now prices for said crops are the lowest in years.
You can’t farm your way out of a loss going forward.

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Didn’t know tariffs from 25’ caused Deere to raise prices 60% over the last 8 years. Those are some far reaching tariffs.

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I'll have to do some checking because I've not bought anything from Deere as I am a Kubota man (got a tag on front of my pickup to prove it). But one company (Mississippi Ag) bought up pretty much every dealership around. I'll see if I can find out how they are doing. I have some relatives in the Delta that do large scale farming.

Fun story for you Louisiana folks. Years ago there was a company Cameco, down in the bayou. Made sugar harvesting equipment, went bankrupt and all the employees chipped in and bought it, started making anything big, you could paint yellow and put tires on.

They got the subcontract for John Deere sprayers. I was in the NO airport at a bar and this fella next to me strikes up a conversation. Worked for some water pump company, they had a contract with John Deere, they were faulty and he was going out to factories to show them how to replace.

He said I just spent a week and a half at a union facility in Ohio. Came down here to this place called Cameco. Showed one guy how to do it, went to lunch and when I came back he had already shown two other fellas and the three of them were under sprayers replacing them. He said I was amazed, then first guy said get your arse down there and fix the next one, we got another set to do before we go drinking.....and you are paying.

Two days, to do the same work it took him to do in a week and a half in Ohio.

Cameco sold out to John Deere, them ole baws aint fixing water pumps anymore, they counting money catching redfish off their yacht I hope.

And when they shut down jenerette started its spiral into the shitter.
JD is actually making some cotton equipment in Thibodeaux now.

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Do you not think we compete with Brazil?

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Not at all. Was just curious what Gumbo thought we were competing against them in. Highly perishables or something more stable and their associated uses. “Crops” covers a lot of ground that’s open to the reader’s interpretation.