Equipment dealers also will field more inquiries and dispense service online. Dealers and manufacturers plan to use the Internet to track used equipment and sell new products and machines. Manufacturers also must look outside the United States since the market for selling new tractors and combines is declining. CNH Global and Deere are expanding in Brazil, China and India. The two companies have had sales in the former Soviet Union and are negotiating new deals in Russia.
Global expansion is certainly necessary.
Farm equipment sales peaked in the United States in 1973 when 197,000 tractors and 35,000 combines sold, according to the Equipment Manufacturers Institute of Chicago. Last year, in the midst of a downturn in the farm economy, the major equipment makers cut production and reduced field inventory. About 139,684 tractors were sold in 1999, compared with 135,158 in 1998, a 3.3 percent increase, according to EMI data. However, only 5,462 combines were sold in 1999, compared with 10,367 in 1998, a 47.3 percent decrease, EMI said. Copyright 1998, Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.