I don't find the article anymore, but I read that this is the reason why US farmers were buying Belorussian tractors
http://belarus-tractor.com/en/company/news/2016/rare-soviet-...
Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
231–240 of 270 posts
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also grew up in a rural high school with a large farming population. I categorize farmers into three types: 1. Professional - Usually highly educated, good business sense. Probably obtained an advanced degree in agriculture science, though not always, some self-educate very successfully. These farmers generally do not like John Deere and think they are overpriced, not as good as they once were, and find the lack of…
Wow. What an incredibly offensive comment. I love how HN understands the right to repair when it comes to their gadgets, but when it comes to tractors it's probably because the farmers are uneducated hicks. Please tell me more how they don't understand AG science enough, but you have such a strong grasp on it. JD tractors were and are reliable and top tier in quality, that's why they are popular and that's why people…
Relax. This commenter is speaking in generalities and it's like you're interpreting it as a personal attack.
They simply said that there exist a category of farmers who do not participate in the normal schooling system and choose brands based only on status. This phenomena exists for nearly all brands. You can't possibly be disputing that these people exist?
Keep away from ad hominem attacks, they only serve to dilute your argument.
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Absolutely! I guess the main innovation will be social. Thinking of a way that people feel responsible for shared tools, a non-awkward way of selecting neighbors who you are willing to share with and some kind of emergency-button if you need a tool now and all the shared tools are taken.
So let's you and I spend an hour offline ironing this out so we can pitch HN for $20 million of seed money next week. We'll start with mowers and expand into kitchen blenders and frying pans. We'll displace Amazon in about 15 years!
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Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#234No-one wants to sell hardware any longer, it's not as profitable as providing it on a subscription (dare we say "rent") and forcing all support, maintenance and additions to go through your channels as part of the subscription package. Unfortunately this trend is everywhere now. It happened to servers, media, has started to happen to cars... but it's happened already to agricultural hardware. Super profitable if you…
Done right, this could actually be better. I own a lawn mower. In fact I usually own two lawn mowers--the new one and the one I just need to repair a bit. All of my neighbors own lawn mowers. We all use our lawn mowers about an hour per week. It's extremely wasteful to purchase 5 lawn mowers to perform 5 hours of mowing per week. We could all hire Suwanda down the street to mow our lawns, but that would cost a lot mo…
You could also have a community tool lending library where everyone can borrow from it.
https://oaklandlibrary.org/locations/oakland-tool-lending-li...
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Done right, this could actually be better. I own a lawn mower. In fact I usually own two lawn mowers--the new one and the one I just need to repair a bit. All of my neighbors own lawn mowers. We all use our lawn mowers about an hour per week. It's extremely wasteful to purchase 5 lawn mowers to perform 5 hours of mowing per week. We could all hire Suwanda down the street to mow our lawns, but that would cost a lot mo…
I thought about this a lot. What if we just share a lot of tools with our neighbors. It will prevent waste and free up space in your house. However, for me, it's more convenient to have my own tools. I have the freedom to mow the lawn whenever I want. Also on that sunny afternoon when all the other neighbors also want to mow their lawn. And I want a tool that's in the right condition. When I have time to do a job aro…
Tool lending libraries are great!
https://oaklandlibrary.org/locations/oakland-tool-lending-li...
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of people don't care about their right to vote but we should all freak out when it gets taken away from them.
Maybe... Compare these different proposals: 1. Disenfranchise everyone who hasn't voted in the last 10 years. 2. Require a two-year waiting period from the time you register as a voter before you can vote. Require registrations to be renewed every 6 years. Voting automatically renews an unexpired registration. It seems to me that both proposals should attract a lot of attention. But one is more alarming than the othe…
Not all states require #3. Indiana does not, but you have to pick one.
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue is really about freedom. If you don't care that a company can decide whether or not you may farm, then rent their equipment. If you do care, then you want 100% control of that equipment. Or as close to 100% as you can get. It's sort of comparable to writing software in C (an ISO standard with many open source compilers) to run on your commodity x86 hardware versus writing an iOS Apple Store app. In one case…
It's not that simple. There are features of these high end tractors such as automation and satellite guidance that allow you to change the scale of your operation. In a sense, you have to make a choice about what kind of business you're going to be at the same time as you're choosing your equipment.
There are aftermarket solutions for that as well. Deere is for people who want a deluxe brand that is all encompassing vs users who don't mind fiddling with their hardware.
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#238Adding to the list of people who grew up on a ranch... Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we had a bunch of old farm equipment, some from like the 1930s-era. Mostly a lot of stuff from the 60s and 70s. And like every bit of equipment on the place had special operation rules. "Don't run that tractor past 5k RPMs" or "Don't use the PTO Shaft (Power Take Off, the gear in the back that hooks in to power towed equipment) from…
> So how on earth could John Deere be liable for the performance or safety of their equipment? If a John Deere tractor blows up, or more aptly some part suffers catastrophic failure and hurts someone... who's at fault? Does John Deere have to honor a 10-year warranty, if you cut corners on the repairs? This gets to a very interesting question when it comes to industrial equipment (which farm equipment falls under). U…
Really interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure what scale you're talking about, but Kubota doesn't really compete with Deere on larger tractors. I don't see any tracked options from Kubota and their tractors don't really go much over 200 horsepower. Deere and Kubota only really compete at the smaller/utility side of things. Also the reason people get locked into Deere isn't just the tractors, but the vertical integration. Can you run your John Deere NT o…
I live in an extremely rural area. The Deere integrations are a huge reason. Another that's not talked about is Deere field service. It's just DAMN GOOD. If you're running a serious tractor(7-9 series ) and it's the middle of planting/harvest hours can be the difference between red and black margins. Deere will roll out a team with 30ft trailer of parts out in hours if you have an issue. CaseIH will sorta match this,…
In hours, aren't you already in the red? Is it tens of hours that makes the difference?
Re: Farmers Deserve the Right to Repair Their Tractors
#240I just want to throw my 2¢ out there, as a mid-20's who went to a high-rural-population high school, there's an entire new generation of farmers who have a) accepted that Deere's need constant/regular service calls, and b) don't care to learn how to fix it (or older equipment) themselves. At the end of the day farming is just a business same as any other, it's the same reason why a lot of trucking companies lease the…
>At the end of the day farming is just a business same as any other Being a business is the reason you want right to repairs. If a single vendor can bankrupt your business then it's not a sustainable business. Right to repair give you cheaper options for repairing your tools.
Not just cheaper, any option. If the tech is busy because everyone is harvesting at the same time; your screwed.