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But who would replace them?

Possibly Fendt. Fendt and John Deere have about the same reputation for mechanical durability and technology leadership (in Germany, my dad is a retired farmer). Fendt is owned by Agco, also American, so they might get the MBA disease at some point as well... but so far, the main thing Agco has done with Fendt is investment to improve and expand.

https://www.farm-equipment.com/blogs/6-opinions-columns/post...

Fendt is considered the cream of the crop around here, at least as far as tractors go, but the dealer network is sparse. I'd run into several Deere dealerships before finally getting to the Fendt dealer.

All brands break. If you don't have easy access to parts, it's harder sell. Farmers don't want machines they can't easily fix and so Deere wins on that front. The CaseIH dealer network is just as strong, so that's the actual competition for Deere in these parts.

Case IH is one that I have seen starting to become more popular and farmers selling their JDs and replacing them with Case tractors. Case has good service and you can purchase most mechanical parts to replace existing broken parts without having to go through a service technician if you don't want to.

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