O’Brien says large tractors and self-propelled combine sales in December 2014 decreased by 49 percent and 40.4 percent respectively over December sales of 2013. While dramatic, this decline is slightly less than the year-over-year December decline typically seen.
“It’s hard to put into words an improving negative growth, but I would say that the year-over-year decline was 31.1 percent less severe than the November year-over-year decline. This uptick is likely due to purchases made by farmers in December reacting positively to the reauthorization of Section 179 tax code. However, this reauthorization by Congress was very late in December, providing a small planning window for taking advantage of Section 179 deductions. Consequently, the lift in equipment sales was fairly small in December.” The Section 179 tax code reauthorization is retroactive for all 2014 equipment sales.
In the same report, smaller two-wheel-drive tractors remained fairly steady with an overall 0.7 percent change in December 2014 sales over December 2013.
Self-propelled combine sales improved 27.6 percent from November 2014 to December 2014. FG
