Welcome to Moving Iron with Casey Seymour and Greg Peterson, the podcast for anyone and everyone involved and interested in the business of ag equipment. If you want to understand what trends and market forces are impacting the price of your iron, you've come to the right place. Buckle up. It's time to move some iron.
Hello and welcome to Moving Iron podcast. We got Greg Machinery Pete Peterson on to talk about what's happening in the world of auctions and equipment and whatnot. But this edition of Moving Iron podcast is brought to you by John Deere. Greg, how you doing today?
I'm doing well, Casey. How are things out in Nebraska?
You know, it's not too bad. We got a little rain. Now that it's windy and warmed up back again, so it's back to normal. But it's summertime in Nebraska, you know.
Here we go. Here comes summer.
That's right. How are things up your way? You guys still getting a bunch of rain or is it settled down?
We got some. We'd been really dry. There were a week and a half ago wildfires in northern Minnesota and up along the Lake Superior in Two Harbors. Some pretty scary stuff, but we did get some rain the week before Memorial Day and then a little on Memorial Day. So, yeah, it was timely. But it has been cold, but today it's about 92, so that tends to sap this old Norwegian. It's too hot.
Yeah, it's a little warm. It's a little warm this time of year. Actually, we had a couple days here that are fairly cool, so then but we had a pretty warm weekend, so again, summertime in Nebraska.
As I get older, I am increasingly a fan of 60-degree weather. I mean, we need the heat for crops and stuff, but I won't argue if it's 65 out. That's a nice day for me.
Now, my joke with my wife all the time is winter needs to last from about the first part of November through the end of January. And then after that, it can be whatever it wants to because that's hunting season. Once hunting season's over, it can be 65 degrees again. Be great.
Hunting season. So, what do you hunt, Casey? I guess I've never asked you.
I'm a bird hunter. I hunt a lot of upland game, so pheasant, quail, that kind of stuff. Got a pointer. And a bunch of orange cones.
How are the pheasant numbers out in western Nebraska these days?
They're really good this year, but it was just so warm that you couldn't hardly hunt them. And they were way ahead of your dog. And I don't move as fast as I used to, so you know.
I resemble that remark. I hear you.
Occasionally. I don't mind it. I don't look for it, either, but I don't mind it so much. But I go out and I get some ducks. I like to duck hunt. I don't so much like goose hunting, those kind of things. Funny thing a lot of guys do around here with their geese, they go shoot geese and then if they're cleaned, you can take them to the zoo here in town. And they'll feed the goose to the lions and whatnot, so. It's pretty cool.
Wow. So, you have a zoo in Scotts Bluff?
It's got animals in a cage, yeah. And so.
That's awesome. I've been to Scotts Bluff a couple times. Next time I'm coming, I'm checking out the zoo. That's awesome.
It would be the equivalent of a retirement home for zoo animals, if there's such a thing. They've got a few gray hairs on them. Not here at the old Scotts Bluff Canyon.
Well, once again, I resemble that remark, so it's all good. It's all good.
It's a neat little zoo they got. Some monkeys and whatnot, so. It's all right. It's all right for a little bitty town.
Well, for those monkeys, that's kind of next level. In my experience, there's been lots of little zoos. We got buffalo out here outside of Rochester. No lions. And definitely no monkeys. I think that's the next level. You guys do it right now in Nebraska.
Well, it's an old chimpanzee if I remember right. It's been a long time since I've been there. We used to take our kids there all the time when they were younger, but it's been a few years since we've been, but I probably should go back out there sometime and take a lap, see what's there.
That's why I like talking to you every week, Casey, because we can be talking about using equipment, but all of a sudden we're talking about chimpanzees or something. That's pretty good.
Yeah. Well, there's a few things swinging around on some tree limbs out there. If you watch some of these auctions lately, there's been a fair amount of volume that's come through again, and we're still tracking higher prices than we've seen over the last 18 months. So, good stability in the marketplace. That's what we're really striving for with the auction marketplace is that stability because that's the footing for everything for the overall marketplace. So, if you're in the market to trade something in, you know things are back to a fairly decent number now again, so that's good.
And before we started talking, we were talking about some sprayers and stuff that you saw selling, some of the Apache selling, those kind of things, but I think the sprayer marketplace to me is really setting itself up to see some dynamic changes just because of the technology that you can get now on these machines and the layered entry levels that you can look at to kind of ramp things up. When you're out there, let's talk a little bit about these sprayers that you saw go through selling, and then we can come back to this, but as you're watching this go through, sometimes I feel like guys are looking at sprayers, especially some of these older sprayers, like when I first started this business, 3,500-hour, 5,000-hour, 6,000-hour sprayers were like you didn't really see, they weren't a hot item. But here lately you're watching those sell and there's shockingly some pretty high prices on them.
Yeah, I think you're right, Casey. Just like we see with tractors the last maybe two years, if it's in good shape even with higher hours, those hard cash auction prices have solidified again, with the caveat being it's got to be in good condition. So for example, we saw a John Deere 4830, I think it was a '10 model, so it's pretty old, you got to consider that whole thing, but still our friends at the Steffes Group sold it May 20th, so as we're recording it's a week ago, so last Wednesday. It was an online sale, but the sprayer was from Lake Park in Minnesota, and it had 2,341 engine hours on it. And a couple episodes ago you were talking about parsing data, so the spray hours on it were only 908, and it brought 82,000 bucks, which was pretty interesting because the average auction price so far this year on a 4830 is just over 73,100, and that's actually up 4.8%. Last year the average auction price was about 69,800, and last year it was up 3.5%, but the two previous years, of course, '23 and '24, we saw big drops, they were down percentage-wise 26.1% and 29.9%. So there's that footing that you were talking about solidifying since that drop, the correction in '24 basically. And I think with sprayers, Casey, you know, Deere in particular and others now with retrofit making what's old new again in this technology. I wonder if sprayers will go down the planter path. What we see there in the used market, when it's retrofitted just right for that area, for your Western Minnesota, it's beet country, you need it this way. You need these things versus Central Illinois, you want it another way. And when it's spec'd right, the hard cash auction price will be like, 'Ooh, that was strong.' But if it's one that has not been updated, then it's kind of ouchy. And I wonder if we won't see that kind of develop more in the used sprayer market at auction. What do you think?
Yeah, well, I think I'm right there with you. I mean, if you look at, you know, me and Aaron Fintel used to talk about it a lot, you know, way back when we first started this about planters, then we called them precision donors, right? Because they were like a 40 or 50,000 planter that was going to take a lot more than you paid for it to just get it halfway reusable again. And so my mind is always like, 'Hey, they're buying this cheap so they can go do, you know, what they're talking about, a Deere system or a Precision Planting system, like whatever that we're going to do, right?' Those are going to be what was really kind of falling into place. And then, you know, so you start looking at some of these sprayers, and you start looking at what the biggest contributing factor to a sprayer is, obviously the powertrain. And then, you know, the motors associated with the spray systems, right? What kind of shape are they in and those kind of things, and, you know, wheel motors and engines and hydrostats and those kind of things. And as long as that stuff's in pretty good shape, you can kind of start going through that. And the cool thing about the way the technology is, it's like I don't have to go buy a complete upgrade kit to make it work, right? I can buy a piece here, a piece there, a piece there, whatever. Same thing with planters, right? You can do the same thing. You got to piece it together how you want to, and, you know, kind of build your foundational base of technology and then kind of slowly add to it as you need to. I'm kind of wondering if some of these sprayers, I've been watching some of these really high-hour sprayers I've been watching go across the block, if that's maybe not some mindset that's associated with those. Now, obviously the year of the machine is going to play a huge role in what you can and can't do, right? Because like, I got a Deere system, like a 2018 is the oldest you can go back to where the entire portfolio can be applied to it. Anything older than that, there's parts and stuff that you can go, I think you go all the way back to like 2010 on some nozzles and those kind of things, but, you know, you kind of knowing where you're at, what you're doing. So I don't know, there's part of me that some advice I don't like to throw out to some folks to be like, man, take a hard look at that 2018 sprayer that's got 3,000, 4,000 hours on it, and, you know, you obviously need to look it over, make sure it's in good shape, but you're opening the door up to I don't need to go out and spend six or eight hundred thousand dollars on a new sprayer, right? I can spend 50 here, 25 there, 30 over here, next thing you know, I've spent 250,000 bucks over the course of a five-year period or something like that. And I'm now have a, you know, for all intents and purposes, I got the same stuff that's coming off the factory line.
Yep. You're taking advantage of the latest technology, and like you say, you're being what is perfect for the environment today. It's like, you know, it's a big old check for a new one and big commitment, but you can get the tech. You know, hats off to manufacturers for making, you know, those components available back down the chain. So, 2018, you know, it's hard to believe that's, you know, eight years old now. Yeah, and I think like you said, the history of care on the thing. So, if it's an '18 or '19 or '20, I was just looking at some auctions today and I think the auction company did a really nice job working in the one-owner factor. You know, don't bury the lead. I mean, way down on line six or eight or whatever. Put it right up front. And then, you know, even on an older one like this '10 model that sold a week ago for what was that, 82,000. But, you know, saying how many spray hours it had, 900-plus spray hours versus the 2,300 engine. So then it lets potential buyer go, well, okay, 2,300 engine, but 908 spray hours. And then I can't remember if that was one owner, but again, you can work those pieces in. But yeah, I know on the planter side, it's just hard cash auction pricing. It's really hard for me analyzing all the data as it pours in to just give one statement to the, you know, planting and seeding market because you'll find these used ones that are spec'd out just right and they sell strong, and then the other ones, you know, just don't. So when dollars are tight, you know, finding exactly what you need, whether it's a planter or tractor, become more important. And I think across the board that's kind of what we're still seeing, Casey. I know there was another sale Saturday in Pennsylvania, Corry, Pennsylvania, that I was watching. I think that was TriStar Auctions had that one. Nice hay equipment. They had a 15-mile New Holland Roll-Belt 450. 7,600 bales through it. Looked really sharp. Went for 23,000. And I thought that was pretty solid. And then I went back in our data, found one almost a year ago, also on an auction in Pennsylvania, but that was an '18 model with fewer bales through it. Like 5,500 bales through it for about 23,500. So again, a 10-11 year old round baler, if it's nice, the money is holding there. But again, if it's not in sharp condition, then you start to see that, you know, the bigger slide off quicker these days.
Yeah. Yeah. It is where you see that, like you talked about. You see that there's those hard stops in there as you look at these different models as you're working your way through there. And knowing where those hard stops are at, you know, I've talked about this on here before, but knowing where those hard stops are at, whether you're talking about reconditioning point or you're talking about a year, make, model, hour point, understanding those hard breaks are is really important when it comes time to sell something. When you're looking at the trade, either taking auction or you're going through trade cycles or whatever it might be, understanding what those are at and what does it mean if I jump out a little bit earlier, I go past that point. What do those look like? And truly understanding that stuff makes a huge difference in how you're going to go about your next buying decision. I think that's something that guys really need to pay close attention to.
Yeah, for sure. And I know right around the corner here we've got some auctions, kind of market-setting type events. One I got my eye on is, as we're recording this, it's two days out. It's Friday, May 29th, our friend Ed with Ed's Machinery in Memphis, Missouri. Ed's a great guy down there, known him for years. I know you worked with him and talked to him, Casey. And a lot of very late-model, sharp equipment, and kind of a mix. I just posted this morning. He's got, you know, he's got an 8R 370 with like 178 hours, an 8R 280 with low hours, a 6R 140 with hardly any hours. But then he'll sprinkle in like a pre-DEF John Deere 7630 two-wheel drive with a loader with only 1,583 hours. And if you like red, Ed on Friday has a 3688 International two-wheel drive with low hours, like 3,300. So I'll be watching that to see how those numbers come in. A lot of combines on that sale, two late-model combines. And for listeners, if you're starting to look ahead to harvest for your combine needs or thoughts, I just looked on our website, machinerypete.com, and you can search by just auction. And we had 167 combines coming up at auction. And 41 of them are one to five years old. And then if you're in the class, I didn't know what there were, 10 Class Lexions in there, some really late-model ones. I think Ed has one on Friday. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see how the combine market kind of does here late spring into summer.
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Yeah. That is interesting to watch the combine space. You know, I don't, you bring that up because it kind of, you saw a little perk up here at the end of '25 going into '26. Really leveled off and kind of actually dipped, you know. It feels like it's leveled out and it's maybe kind of starting to creep up just a little bit, but, you know, combines are such a four-letter word in the equipment space anyway. I mean, it's just, but I mean, just where that dip kind of came in and now you're starting to see it level back out.
Four-letter word, so you mean good? Nice? Other four-letter words?
