Friday, January 22, 2021
CapitalPress.com 5
Farm groups ask Inslee to
revise COVID housing rules
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Deere & Company
Farm machinery sales ended in positive territory in 2020 despite the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus
pandemic.
Farm machinery sales overcome
pandemic shock, unpredictability
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Farm machinery sales
overcame a demand shock
from the coronavirus out-
break to finish 2020 with
adequate though unremark-
able growth in large tractors
and combines.
Meanwhile, the pan-
demic strongly stimulated
consumer appetites for
smaller tractors along with
building and garden supplies
as people spent more time at
home.
“There are reasons for
optimism. We’re ending on
a solid note for 2020,” said
Curt Blades, senior vice
president of ag services for
the Association of Equip-
ment Manufacturers.
Sales increased 3.7% last
year for new four-wheel-
drive tractors, to nearly
3,000 units, and 3.2% for
new two-wheel drive trac-
tors over 100 horsepower,
to more than 19,000 units,
according to AEM. Sales of
new combines grew 5.5%,
to more than 5,000 units.
Those results aren’t stel-
lar, since the relatively low
Nurseries to
host virtual
marketplace
number of units can easily
shift the percentages from
year-to-year, said Blades.
“That could have been a
timing issue.”
Even if sales of new
machinery were basically
flat, the market proved stur-
dier in 2020 than initially
feared in the early days of
the coronavirus outbreak.
Farm machinery demand
“fell off a cliff” after lock-
downs were imposed last
March, with tractor sales
plunging 15-18% across
size categories and combine
sales dropping 12%, accord-
ing to AEM.
Partly due to federal coro-
navirus relief and other farm
assistance — which totaled
$46.5 billion last year —
machinery sales began to
turn the corner by mid-year
and then moved into posi-
tive territory as 2020 drew
to a close.
“The government pay-
ments came in stronger than
expected,” Blades said.
Aside from government
help, farmers saw their cash
flows improve from the rise
in commodity crop prices
that began in autumn, said
Michael Langemeier, an
agricultural economics pro-
fessor at Purdue University
who tracks machinery sales.
Since last summer, the
price of corn has grown
from about $3.25 per bushel
to more than $5 per bushel
while soybean prices have
increased from below $10
per bushel to as high as $14
in some areas, he said.
Prices for commodity
crops have strengthened due
to lower-than-expected end-
ing stocks as well as high-
er-than-expected Chinese
demand, Langemeier said.
“Exports are much stronger
than we thought they were
going to be.”
As a result, farmers
sought to reduce their tax-
able income by investing
in new machinery in 2020,
particularly since many
had deferred replacing
older tractors and combines
during several years of low
incomes, he said. “You’re
looking at a situation where
a lot of farms had a lot more
cash flow than they thought
they were going to have.”
Judging from the futures
market and projected cash
prices, the outlook for trac-
tor and combine sales looks
optimistic in 2021, Lange-
meier said. “If that mate-
rializes, you will see some
pretty strong demand for
machinery.”
Though sales of small
tractors were slow out of the
gate, their popularity flour-
ished as the months of quar-
antine wore on: Sales surged
21% for tractors under 40
horsepower and 14% for
those between 40 and 100
horsepower, according to
AEM.
Those statistics are in line
with growth in the retail mar-
ket for building materials
and gardening equipment,
which saw sales increase
more than 13% last year, to
$400 billion, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau.
Demand for utility trac-
tors soared among “rural
lifestyle” landowners with
small acreages, as well as
among cattle producers who
saw them as affordable and
useful investments, Blades
said.
“The small tractor market
has been on fire throughout
the year,” he said.
John Deere Dealers
CLEAR THE CANOPY.
See one of these dealers for a demonstration
Belkorp Ag, LLC
Modesto, CA
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
PORTLAND — The Ore-
gon Association of Nurseries,
which represents nearly 700
wholesale growers, retail-
ers, landscapers and suppli-
ers statewide, announced
Wednesday it will host a vir-
tual marketplace event in
February.
The event, called Nursery
Guide LIVE, will take place
online Feb. 17-18.
“Nursery Guide LIVE is
designed to provide nursery
industry professionals with
sales and buying opportuni-
ties just as the spring ship-
ping season kicks off,” Allan
Niemi, the association’s
director of events, said in a
statement.
The virtual event, Niemi
said, is intended to comple-
ment rather than replace the
annual in-person Farwest
Show, which is still tenta-
tively planned for Aug. 18-20
if the pandemic is under con-
trol by then.
At the Nursery Guide
LIVE event, association
member exhibitors will have
the opportunity to showcase
their plant offerings, services
and supplies.
Many nursery owners are
already part of a printed guide
published annually called the
Nursery Guide book, which
typically has 300 pages of
listings and content about
Oregon nurseries. February’s
virtual event was inspired by
the Nursery Guide, but will
push the concept further by
giving customers the oppor-
tunity to interact in the virtual
marketplace rather than sim-
ply read listings in a catalog.
The marketplace platform,
according to the association,
will have a simple setup and
layout, allow unlimited prod-
uct listings, permit multiple
images and videos for each
product and offer customers
live video chat features.
OLYMPIA — Two Wash-
ington farms groups are
pushing the Inslee admin-
istration to write new farm-
worker housing rules, taking
into account that coronavi-
rus vaccinations are coming.
The current rules were
set last spring as health offi-
cials scrambled to contain
COVID-19. The rules limit
the use of bunk beds, cutting
housing capacity. The rules
were temporary, but are still
in effect eight months later.
With thousands of guest-
workers arriving soon,
merely rolling over last
year’s rules will hurt agri-
culture, according to the
Washington Farm Bureau
and labor supplier WAFLA.
The two organizations
are petitioning Gov. Jay Ins-
lee to repeal the emergency
rules and order up ones
that recognize the possibil-
ity of having an inoculated
workforce.
“We’re just trying to
press the governor to give
us some certainty,” Farm
Bureau CEO John Stuhl-
miller said. “We’re trying to
stop this crazy thing of gov-
erning by (emergency rule)
without public input.”
Farm
Bureau
and
WAFLA submitted the peti-
tion Jan. 13. The governor
has seven days to respond.
A governor’s spokeswoman
said officials planned to dis-
cuss the petition Friday.
The Department of Labor
and Industries set the hous-
ing rules May 13. Farm-
worker advocates alleged
the rules were insufficient,
but a judge said that L&I
did the best it could to react
quickly to a health crisis.
Farm groups also had
their complaints, though
they didn’t sue. L&I indi-
cated in September it would
revisit the rules. So far, it’s
extended the emergency
rules every 120 days with
only minor changes.
“We are continuing to
gather information from the
implementation of the emer-
gency rules and will use it to
inform potential permanent
changes,” an L&I spokes-
man said in an email.
“Because the permanent
rules are still in the develop-
ment phase, there’s no esti-
mate on how long they take
to complete,” he said.
About 15,000 guest farm-
workers that must be housed
will arrive in the next two
months, said WAFLA exec-
utive director Dan Fazio,
whose organization helps
farms recruit seasonal for-
eign workers.
Farms are ready to test
and quarantine incom-
ing workers, and the state
should prepare to immunize
them, Fazio said.
Vaccinations would align
with L&I’s concerns last
spring that farmworkers in
group housing were vul-
nerable to COVID-19, he
said. “People living in con-
gregate housing need to be
prioritized.”
The Health Depart-
ment plans to vaccinate
health-care workers, emer-
gency responders and nurs-
ing home residents first,
followed by people over
70 and people over 50 in
group housing, including
farmworkers. There is no
timeline.
In the petition to Ins-
lee, the Farm Bureau and
WAFLA outline objections
they have to the 8-month-
old emergency rules.
The rules allow work-
ers to travel and live close
together in groups of 15.
Farm groups say there is no
scientific basis for limiting
co-horts to 15.
The farm groups say that
it’s not feasible to keep win-
dows open in cold weather.
Also, the rules require farms
to let in “community-based
outreach workers.” Farm
groups say unscreened visi-
tors risk spreading the virus
to workers.
Campbell Tractor &
Implement
Fruitland, ID
Homedale, ID
Nampa, ID
Wendell, ID
Papé Machinery,
Inc.
Moscow, ID
Ponderay, ID
Madras, OR
Merrill, OR
Tangent, OR
Chehalis, WA
Ellensburg, WA
Four Lakes, WA
Lynden, WA
Quincy, WA
Sumner, WA
Tekoa, WA
Walla Walla, WA
Stotz Equipment
American Falls, ID
Tri-County Equipment
Enterprise, OR
La Grande, OR
Standing less than 56-in. tall and 53-in.
wide, this high performer keeps a low profile
while protecting your prized fruit.
The 5075GL is proof that good things do, in fact, come in small
packages. Its narrow, low-profile combined with a powerful
75 HP engine and 61 PTO HP make this machine the perfect
fit for the grueling demands of orchards, vineyards and other
operations.
With its impressively small stature - less than 56-in. tall and
less than 53-in. wide - the 5075GL is our narrowest tractor
yet. Add to that the improved maneuverability and this
machine easily navigates rows and clears those small, tight
spaces when trees are laden with fruit, protecting the crop
from damage.
Don’t let the small size fool you. The 5075GL was built for
power. Whether you’re flail mowing, spraying, pushing harvest
bins or trailering, this machine provides the engine and PTO
horsepower you need to get the job done.
S223358-1