Sorry for being naive, I am not american. Can you tell, why those farmers aren't buying tractors from other companies? Those news always contain Deere name, I don't see similar critique against say Valtra or Belarus.
At least the best at marketing. A big time operator friend of mine, with a fleet of predominately Deere equipment, ordered a new CaseIH tractor a couple of years ago. Before it even showed up on the farm, John Deere caught wind of the purchase and swooped in to make him an offer he couldn't refuse, buying out the never used CaseIH tractor from him, and getting him into a green machine instead.
Of course, us smaller farmers look to what the bigger farmers are doing to gain some insight into how they are successful, as people do. When you see the big guys running Deere equipment, it is easy to think that Deere helped them achieve the success they have, and if you buy Deere equipment you will also be successful. But there is some smoke and mirrors going on.
I have a few different brands on my farm. As far as getting the job done, I'm not sure any are better than any other. They all break down just the same. However, John Deere does seem to have an edge on operator comfort. Which, admittedly, is nice on the long days.
Amazing! Yes, comfort. That just has to boost sales.
That dealership has now been replaced with a John Deere-only dealership. From what I was told, nowadays John Deere only wants to sell to dealerships who exclusively sell John Deere equipment, so they had pressured the previous dealership.
So I think that's been a factor in the consolidation of farming equipment dealerships, which are now further apart and siloed into different manufacturers. It's not a healthy/competitive market for farm equipment buyers.
I'd guess farms and fields tend to be bigger in the US, making the economies of scale work in favour of bigger tractors.
Most contractors use New Holland tractors now.
I suspect the reason is a shift from annual crops to permanent crops, that do not need much of the high-end functionalities.
If it is the main tool for your job then you aren't going to want anything less than the best. John Deere seem to have that going for their business strategy.
The tractor business model reminds me of how workstations and mini-computers were sold with vendor lock in. That market didn't survive the 1990's and the onslaught of affordable PCs. There is nothing on the horizon to disrupt the tractor business, it is not as if new affordable mega-tractors are going to come along at ordinary car prices to encourage masses of people to go 'back to the land' and put the likes of John Deere in difficulties.
Bigger and bigger agri-business can't go on forever though, it is built on assumptions about the inputs. Half of the food on my plate tonight comes from places too far away for me to ever fly to myself, but, if climate change action is to happen then my diet and everyone else's will have to be a lot more locally sourced.
An excellent point that I've have views about for years. Reckon we need to cover this under a separate topic as it's a huge one and covers such issues about what is and is not or should not be permitted under capitalism and free trade as we understand them today.
Is nobody else making tractors anymore?
I remember John Deere tractors being the very cream of the crop: are they still well-made and revered for it?
What a weird world. We would have been incredulous to be told that one day we wouldn't be able to repair our tractors without computers. That was back in the TRS-80 era, for reference...