Takeaways
- The entire ag community -- even the majors whose fortunes were built on specialized Innovations -- ought to celebrate the solutions brought by the fast-moving, small & Independent manufacturers.
- A 'truly strong and vibrant' ag equipment Is not by mass-marketed products only, but a world in which the niche manufacturers can also innovate, flourish & survive.
- The Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association. (FEMA) turns 75 In 2025, with a unique celebration & gathering at this October's FEMA-EMDA Convention In Las Vegas.
This annual Shortline Edition of Farm Equipment is among my favorites. Not only to shine the light on the under-covered and underdog innovators of the business, but also because of the annual Shortline Legends Hall of Fame. Our work covering the biz for 2-plus decades has brought great admiration for these often against-all-odds manufacturing legends, several of whom I’ve gotten the privilege to know personally.
John Tye and his Tye no-till drill was a name I was familiar with as a kid, and who’d I meet at my first Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association (FEMA) Convention in 2004, shortly after my dad, Frank, and I acquired the magazine.
As the second-generation at Lessiter Media, a company that barely survived the 1980s (Dad and my late mom, Pam, who had mortgaged their home a half-dozen times, eventually had to sell off more than half of their holdings and restart with just 1 part-timer), I appreciate the grit and innovation that comprise this great industry.
The dealer world had to consolidate and “get big or get out,” but the independent OEMs are still punching it out via innovations. They find relevance because of the realities of the major-lines and their large factories built to mass-market needs. The majors operate like battleships at sea, while the shortliners are the PT boats — small, fast and able to change course.
Benefits in Innovation, Commerce
In this 75th year of F EMA (the association of shortline equipment companies) we’ve delved deeper into shortliners and their “first-in” and quick-to-market specialized solutions that keep farmers going. The business-generating foot-traffic and gateway-sale benefits for dealers, however, aren’t as obvious.
The odds of converting a green-bleeding customer to another color may be limited on the “big stuff,” but dealers can lure rival-brand customers into their stores on a header, cutter or a strip-till rig, to name a few. Each color conversion journey starts with one wholegoods, part or labor-hour sale, and niche equipment provides that opportunity.
Consider the Alternative
What if the industry of tomorrow lacks a strong shortline industry and its choices? There aren’t many new iron companies popping up as the distribution challenges intensify. Dealers cite a backlash of pressures for any type of Brand-X equipment on their lots, even when not competitive to the sign out front.
Economics and succession matters dictate that shortline OEMs will continue to be amalgamated or outright sold to the majors. But double-digit examples exist among major-lines killing acquired or licensed innovations over a “not invented here” arrogance.
Majors operate like battleships, while the shortliners are the PT boats ...
Tye’s story alone included 2 examples where the acquirer — my words — ruined what were well-oiled “machines” and whose factories were recklessly consolidated elsewhere. Countless more tales exist of entrepreneurs lured by promises for their brand, employees and royalty checks. I hope these owners get the cash upfront, as some deals are defensive moves. Despite what the PR folks say, a lot of deals will be marked as losers — that is, if the score that matters is the customer’s.
As you’ll see in this special edition, the majors aren’t exactly celebrating their small-company brethren, despite their own storied shortline legacies. New Holland with its automatic baler. Case and IH with the thresher and McCormick reaper, respectively. Deere with its plows. AGCO, which was built on a collection of shortlines. Snatching someone else’s inventions sometimes works, and sometimes is made for the wrong reasons.
By the way, private equity — which we’ll continue to see more of — hasn’t been kind to the sustaining fates of a lot of ag innovators, nor their dealers or customers.
The ag community should celebrate our “independents.” Farmers deserve the choices that keep the big boys honest and should acknowledge the companies and entrepreneurs willing to “step into the arena.”
It’s still the American way.
