Best year-end buys in horsepower

In all my years of covering the used equipment market, I have never seen the like: Sullivan Auctioneers held four online auctions for Hutson Inc. (a Deere dealership network in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Michigan) in the middle of harvest!

Traditionally, harvest and spring planting are dead zones for auctions. During these times, farmers stayed home and focused on field chores while auctioneers began to prepare for the huge summer and end-of-the-year auction periods. 

But starting Oct. 10 and repeating the following three Tuesdays that month, Sullivan sold a long line of iron for Hutson. The high final bids registered during those sales testify to the trend that farmers are now buying equipment online any time of the year, whether they are in their offices or in the cab of a combine, tractor, or pickup. Karen Jones in “Steel Deals” (page 28, November issue of Successful Farming) looked at this online phenomenon and the fact that farmers are also buying used iron farther from home. 

Luke Sullivan of Sullivan Auctioneers also points out that breaking the Hutson line of equipment into four separate online auctions kept the length of each auction shorter. As for holding the auctions in October, he adds, “Well, there are fewer auctions that month so that presented our client with a larger audience.”

Rise in high hp availability 

The other trend revealed by this series of online auctions was the rising availability of large horsepower row crop tractors. Model years 2020 and 2021 tractors were in severe shortage due to supply challenges manufacturers were facing.

But the Hutson auctions offered a healthy supply of 2022 John Deere 8R Series tractor models. 

Noticing this offering, I checked John Deere’s dealer listing site, machinefinder.com, and was surprised to find that at press time there were almost a thousand 1-year-old Model 8Rs sitting on dealer lots. I expect the number of this age and series of tractor models available will increase toward January, thanks to a surge of end-of-the-year trade-ins that often occurs.

8R 370s in high supply

The star of the 8R line at machinefinder.com was clearly the Model 8R 370. At press time, more than 330 Model 8R 370s were available, nearly double that of the next most popular model, the 8R 410. Following this trend, this month’s Price Guide is dedicated to 8R 370s. That guide lists both the highest and lowest asking prices.

The growing abundance of tractors like the 8R 370 is evidence that the severe lull in the availability of high horsepower tractors has come to an end. 

“The new market reports show a mix of expected and unexpected trends, especially in farm equipment categories,” observes Ryan Dolezal of TractorHouse.com. “With inventory piling up [at dealerships], we expect to see a wider gap between asking prices and auction values. It’s unusual, though, to see combine and high-horsepower tractor inventories continue to grow this time of year when those numbers typically start coming down.”

Experiencing an inventory surge

Sandhills Global notes a particular surge in the availability of high-horsepower tractors (300 hp and greater). Generally, inventory levels of used equipment rose this past year, enjoying a 36% year-over-year increase. 

  The market research firm found that inventory levels of high-horsepower tractors (as of September) were nearly double that of last year, up nearly 85%. You can access Sandhills Global’s report by contacting the firm at marketreports@sandhills.com.

Although less significant than inventory levels, Sandhills Global noted that dealer asking values had increased nearly 9% from a year ago, while auction values saw a minor drop of just over 1% during the same time period. 

Equally equipped tractors

The other interesting trend reflected in the Price Guide is the similarity in specifications between the highest and lowest priced tractors of the same model. While gathering the specifications for the Price Guide, I expected the lowest-priced tractors to be less feature-rich than those listings at the top. While the lowest priced Model 8R 370s had fewer cab enhancements and lighting packages, overall the tractors at the top and bottom of the price range were similarly equipped, with continuously variable transmissions and independent-link front axle suspension. 

Often the determining factor for the differences between dealer asking prices was hours. 

However, there was a significant spread in price between the two ranges with a $100,000 difference between the highest and lowest 8R 370 listed.