Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

startribune.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 511 posts

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#141

Post by Will_Parker »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #21

My understanding is that farming equipment is quite specialized, but I fail to see how no entrepreneur has capitalized on making "old school" tractors today. The immediate retort is that John Deere's approach is maximally profitable-- but is it? Sketchy websites host hacked firmware giving farmers the freedom to work on their own tractors anyways. The equipment manufacturers have lost their goodwill with farmers. Fro…

> The immediate retort is that John Deere's approach is maximally profitable-- but is it?

If your profit has to come from sales, but a lot of theirs comes from locking you into a maintenance profit, isn't this a big problem, when they can lower their sale prices much lower than yours?

See what happened when printer manufacturers figured out it was more profitable to sell you ink than printers, even taking a loss on the first sale. They all had to do it once one did. Everyone knew the printers were getting cheap and terrible, but still very few wanted to pay 2x as much on the initial purchase.

With games and other software as well, we see more and more monetizing with ads, DLC and subscriptions, even though most gamers would probably say this had made games worse overall.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#143

Post by kristiandupont »

zorpner wrote: post #135
earlINmeyerkeg wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest innovation in the history of mankind was a land consolidation. It took what 100 peasants all making enough food for subsistence living to 100 peasants be able to make enough food for thousands of people. It's not sad, it's progress.

It's not sad, it's progress. These are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Indeed. Also, many things that are good in moderation are bad in excess.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#144

Post by sl1ck731 »

earlINmeyerkeg wrote: post #128
macinjosh wrote: post #98

My grandfather, rest his soul, was a 3rd generation rancher and farmer. He bought 2 John Deere tractors in the '80s and used them for 35 years. They are still being used to this day on the ranch. Growing up, I visited the ranch regularly. Farming and ranching is very hard on equipment so the tractors often needed repair. My father and grandfather could seemingly fix anything on the tractor without even needing to go…

The greatest innovation in the history of mankind was a land consolidation. It took what 100 peasants all making enough food for subsistence living to 100 peasants be able to make enough food for thousands of people. It's not sad, it's progress.

The same could be said for robots displacing humans in factories or trucks or anywhere else. That doesn't make it less sad for people's whose livelihoods depend on those positions just because its technological progress.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#145

Post by Tossrock »

dsalzman wrote: post #58

Opportunity for a company like $TESLA or other startup to provide additional competition in the farm equipment space. It's a duopoly between John Deere (Green) and Case IH (Red). A modular electric system would work well since the required speeds are low and torque is important. Extra points for a small wind turbine based charging station that can mount to a barn.

Tesla is notorious for exactly the kind of DRM, in-house only servicing that the farmers are trying to avoid.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#146

Post by floren »

kasey_junk wrote: post #87
floren wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mahindra is selling small and medium tractors in the US now; I don't know for sure but I wouldn't be surprised if they were much more user-serviceable than the American brands people are complaining about.

Note: This story is about heavy duty tractors. Lighter duty tractors are much more competitive marketplace.

Yeah, Mahindra has some reasonably large tractors on their website, but the really Big Tractors you'll find from say John Deere aren't available. According to Wikipedia they're the largest tractor seller in the world, so maybe they'll expand!

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#147

Post by gen220 »

We recently had to bin a beloved TV, and were looking for a "simple" 4k TV (i.e. not a smart TV) to replace it, and were surprised to find that they simply don't exist!

We ended up uncovering a 6 year old 1080p TV that was still in the box at Best Buy.

All in all, this problem might present an opportunity -- there might be new markets for these types of devices (dumb TVs, tractors, refrigerators, air conditioners, thermostats). Given them a modern UX, but eschew all of the creepy features of modern tech (always-on monitoring, open tcp/ip ports, impossible to repair).

In theory these high-quality, low-recurring-revenue products should be easier to build, and similarly easy to market ("we don't spy on you, we break in ways that are fixable"). And you can charge a premium, because you're offering the freedom of ownership (ironic, I know).

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#148

Post by mminer237 »

pmiller2 wrote: post #115

So, what are the real advantages to the newer tractors over older tractors for farmers? Why should a farmer spend 4-10x as much for a newer tractor as they would for a 1980s model?

I'm not an expert, but I think generally tractors have become much bigger and more powerful over time. This works well for the large farms they're marketed to as they have to prepare and plant huge areas quickly. Smaller farmers probably couldn't work the fields fast enough with their older equipment that can't pull super wide discs.

Transmissions have definitely become super advanced, but I'm not sure all the advantages of that. The main thing I would think of is that it can compensate so you can maintain your speed better even when you hit a rough spot.

In addition, newer tractors have a lot of nice, kind of gimmicky features in the cab. Things like satellite radio, working air conditioning, anti-theft systems, and GPS-controlled planting are nice even if they're not necessary.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#149

Post by mattgrice »

fifthace wrote: post #91

If tractors with closed software are such a problem, why doesn't a company build old-school tractors? Heck, you could use a 1980 design, currently selling second-hand for $40-60k, based on expired patents.

Farmers need same-day access to replacement parts, which means a dealer with a full stock of parts within driving range. Belarus/MTZ tractors are low tech designs but have about one dealer in every state.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#150

Post by temporalparts »

zorpner wrote: post #135
earlINmeyerkeg wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest innovation in the history of mankind was a land consolidation. It took what 100 peasants all making enough food for subsistence living to 100 peasants be able to make enough food for thousands of people. It's not sad, it's progress.

It's not sad, it's progress. These are not mutually exclusive concepts.

It's sad that progress must mean sadness for some. We should have better social safety net so that displacement doesn't mean despair.
Post reply on HN