Beard: Farm Equipment Deliveries Delayed, Prices Up

By Benjamin Cox on December 23, 2021 at 9:19am

Farmers in Illinois are going to have to wait to get new farm equipment. Jerry Beard of Beard Implement Company in Arenzville recently told The Center Square that farmers in the area are going to have to pay top dollar for new equipment and wait until 2023 to get it.

Starting earlier this year, wait times on farm equipment began to dramatically increase. According to the report, Beard says that wait times have doubled since this year began. Beard says he is battling simply getting products to make sales. Beard also alleges that some of the main farm equipment makers are price gouging when equipment does come in.

In spite of the frustrations, Beard says overall, 2021 has been a good year for Beard Implements. Beard also told the Center Square that it’s the opposite problem the company had in 2013, 2014, and 2015 when commodity prices dropped and they had both new and used equipment they couldn’t sell.

According to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers report, 136,227 tractors were sold from the beginning of this year through May, a 26% increase from the same months last year. Sales of combines increased 13% to 1,774 over the period.

It appears that this is yet another supply chain issue not being able to keep up with demand in the country.