I stopped by Topcon’s Fort Atkinson, Wis., facility this week to check in with the precision technology manufacturer and get a feel for the company’s outlook on the precision market. 

A large percentage of what is manufactured at the Fort Atkinson plant is headed to OEM customers, says Travis Brueske. He is hopeful that we’ll start to see the ag economy stabilize in the second half of 2026. 

“When I look at the market as a whole specifically for agriculture, I am starting to get a sense that we've at least plateaued and I believe plateauing in the sense of we're starting to see an increase or at least some uptick in the frequency of orders coming in from our customers. That's both OEMs and also aftermarket dealerships that we supply here out of this location. Hopefully that trend continues. I wouldn't say it's on a rocket ship. You know what? Going in this direction, we're starting to see some peaks and some valleys, but we're definitely not in that trough anymore.”

“My guess, and my hope is by the end of next year we start to see the new normal. What is that new normal going to look like? I'm not sure, but hopefully getting back to some resemblance of the pre-pandemic type volumes and numbers that we were seeing. To make sure that we're ready for when that happens in any way, shape, or form, we're really focusing here at Topcon on our infrastructure. We are looking at how we're doing things from a process and workflow perspective, and we're looking to see where things like automation potentially could play into what we are doing. We're looking at things like AI, especially on the logistics side of the business, especially for the things that my team is looking at. Because at the end of the day, whatever it comes back to look like, we have to be ready not only to supply a product, but also to support that product that we are selling. And we think by streamlining what we do, that's one positive way to do that.”

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