Boeing actually seems to have more diverse competition, including Lockheed, Northrup, etc (although they're dominant in the commercial airplanes segment, where airbus isn't mentioned, so maybe these stats are US market only): https://csimarket.com/stocks/competitionSEG2.php?code=BA
Being able to get service in the field quickly is critical during planting or harvest. During these times downtime can be exceedingly expensive if the farmer is trying to beat some change in weather.
And sure you could try and get someone other than the dealer to work on it, if you can find them. But trying to find this person when your equipment is broken and you are burning money isn’t a great option and the dealer will probably favor servicing clients who bought equipment from them.
John Deere manufactures it’s own engines in many cases, but it also uses engines from other manufacturers.
> never (intentionally) leaves the ground or exceeds 30mph
Yes, aviation has a lot lower risk tolerance than agriculture, but ag equipment still kills plenty of people, and I’d probably rather be in a head-on collision with a honda civic going 50mph than an 8R going 30mph.
> Most medium sized countries have tractor factories, as they're essential for food production for the population.
Are you just reiterating that John Deere has more competitors? If so, I think this is misleading because most of these factories are just the same few competitors with factories in different companies (rather than distinct companies per country).
Wait, maybe Jeremy Clarkson bought that lambo tractor under his own name. But it is more likely that his production company owns it.
The fact is, a pilot did not purchase the plane with his own money, and is working for a giant corporation that can negotiate a contract with another giant corporation.
A farmer, esp. a small scale private farmer, is not in the same position to negotiate a favourable contract as American Airlines would to Boeing.
It’s a pretty even fight, and because of the existence of Airbus, the airlines actually have a slight advantage. Look at what happened when Southwest casually mentioned they might be thinking about adding A320s into their fleet. Sent Boeing scrambling.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/11/21363122/boeing-747s-flop...
Flying your modern aircraft doesn't depend on a lousy app that requires your "username and password" and probably doesn't even know what a pwd salt is. And if it goes down you can still fly (or keep flying).
You won't get cut out of replacement parts unless you're in a sanctioned country (and they do have ways of sourcing the parts).
Yes the agribusiness are ok with this, they know how to handle it (but you'll bet they'll have a lot of angry calls and lawsuits in some cases). Small farms on the other hand...