Farm equipment leasing doubles

A new report shows the leasing of farm equipment has nearly doubled since 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports Deere & Co. is spending billions of dollars each year on its own equipment for leasing programs. Records show that more than one-third of financed purchases of high horsepower machinery made by John Deere is being leased to farmers and construction builders. Roughly 90 percent of those machines are owned by Deere’s financing business. Deere reports that in 2018, leased equipment represented a value of $7.8 billion, compared to more than $2 billion in 2012. Meanwhile, CNH Industrial, the maker of Case IH and New Holland, is also leasing more equipment. The company says more than 40 percent of high horsepower tractor sales are leased, up from 25 percent back in 2012. The current farm economy is drastically different from 2012, around the time farm income reached an all-time high before plummeting over the last few years.