Machinery Pete: How Used Row Crop Tractor Values Shifted from 2023 to 2024 - AgWeb

A 2013 Case IH Magnum 290 tractor with 3,013 hours sold for $90,000 in an October farm auction in Union City, Okla. That’s an interesting sale price for many reasons.

I started wondering how that compares to the trend line on Magnum 290 tractor values, which were made from 2011 to 2015. It turns out that price is almost exactly spot on. The current average auction price on that model through late October this year was $89,830.

That felt pretty far below where it was not long ago. So, using the average pricing option on MachineryPete.com, I found the price tanked 34% from last year’s $136,121 average, which was the highest average auction price on that model in 10 years.

When I posted these findings across our Machinery Pete social media outlets, follower Zach Zaide asked, “Pete, can you do a comparison for a John Deere same year and horsepower?” You bet I can, Zach.

The comparable John Deere model is the 8285R, which had an average auction price through late October of $103,294. A lot of folks on social media latched on to that $13,000 difference between red and green. But my mind went down another path. It seemed like that was also down quite a bit.

Bingo. It was down exactly 34% from last year’s average auction price on John Deere 8285Rs of $156,518. Similar to the pattern seen with Magnum 290s, last year’s average auction price on John Deere 8285Rs was the highest in nine years.

Some folks said it is good to see used tractor values finally recalibrating downward from the nosebleed heights of late 2020 into early 2023. One follower commented on my post about falling used combine values saying it shows the work the Fed has been doing to control inflation is working. Personally, I find the argument that used farm equipment values are driven higher purely by inflation way too simplistic.

Yes, inflation is an important part but not nearly as important as other market forces. From 2021 to 2022, we saw historically low levels of used inventory on dealer lots as manufacturers struggled to meet demand. And, of course, those were years of very strong farm income.

What I’ve always loved about 35 years of compiling auction data on equipment has been its brutal honesty. Sometimes it’s way up, and sometimes it’s way down. It can turn on a dime, like it did back in November 2007 when the ethanol push exploded, commodity prices took off, and auction sale prices on used farm equipment skyrocketed.

Timing is everything. In March 2023, a John Deere 8285R with 1,225 hours tied a record price, selling for $250,000 in Marion, N.Y. A year and a half later, an 8285R with 1,853 hours sold for $188,955 in Lone Tree, Iowa. That was then, this is now.

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