Friday, January 21, 2022
CapitalPress.com 3
Rising expenses loom over 2022 machinery sales
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Farmers invested heav-
ily in new tractors and com-
bines last year but higher
production costs could aff ect
their continued appetite for
machinery in 2022, experts
say.
Unit sales of new trac-
tors over 100 horsepower
increased by 24% in 2021,
while new four-wheel-drive
tractors rose 18% and com-
bines surged by nearly 25%,
according to the Association
of Equipment Manufacturers.
“Attitudes in the ag econ-
omy have been pretty pos-
itive,” said Curt Blades,
AEM’s senior vice president
of industry sectors and prod-
uct leadership.
The strong demand for
farm machinery was partly
a “timing issue,” as grow-
ers already had crops in the
ground before the price of
fertilizer and other inputs
began soaring, said Michael
Langemeier, an agricultural
economics professor at Pur-
due University who tracks
AGCO
Farm machinery sales soared in 2021 but higher expenses may dampen growers’ ap-
petites for new tractors and combines in 2022.
farm machinery.
“It was the perfect rolling
of the dice in terms of crop
net income returns,” he said.
The USDA forecast net farm
income at about $117 billion
in 2021, a 23% increase over
the previous year.
While expenses have
since climbed, likely eating
into farm profi ts, about 45%
of growers in Purdue Univer-
sity’s “ag economy barome-
ter” survey said it was tough
to fi nd replacement machin-
ery, Langemeier said.
“Machinery sales would
have been higher in 2021
if we hadn’t been going
through these supply chain
issues,” he said.
Though farm input costs
are “sharply on the rise,”
machinery manufacturers are
optimistic that growers will
still want to buy new equip-
ment in 2022, Blades said.
“We’re still in a bit of
a replacement market,” he
said. “The fl eet’s older than
it’s been in a while.”
Farmers still have “a lot of
working capital” and “some
unmet needs,” so 2022 could
see a “lingering eff ect” of
elevated demand for machin-
ery, Langemeier said.
According to USDA’s
most recent estimate, the com-
posite cost of farm machinery
rose 16% year over year.
Higher demand for trac-
tors and combines, as well as
manufacturers’ own climbing
expenses, will probably exert
upward pressure on machin-
ery prices in the coming year,
Langemeier said.
“I don’t see how that can
taper off in 2022,” he said.
The cost of steel, labor
and transportation — three
major inputs for manufactur-
ers — have all gotten higher
with infl ation, Blades said.
“Without question, every-
thing is going up,” he said. “It
goes without saying prices
will go up.”
However, manufacturers
recognize that farming is a
relatively low-margin busi-
ness, he said. “They’re not
trying to take additional prof-
its as much as cover their
costs.”
Langemeier agreed that
manufacturers can’t hike
prices for tractors and com-
bines too aggressively with-
out destroying demand.
They’re likely to aim for
a sweet spot that will off set
some of their rising expenses
while minimizing damage to
sales, he said.
“They can’t pass all those
costs on, but they can pass
some of them on,” Lange-
meier said.
Manufacturers are like-
wise wary of raising prices
due to improvements in
engine emissions and effi -
ciency, Blade said.
“It takes money to engi-
neer a product to meet a
growing number of regula-
tions, he said.
However, growers can
expect that more advanced
technology can help them
save on fuel and other inputs,
which is part of the equation,
Blades said.
“What we’re very cau-
tious about is how much the
market can bear,” he said.
Hemp compounds block COVID-19 from infecting cells, research shows
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. —
New research from Ore-
gon State University reveals
hemp might off er protection
from COVID-19, adding to
the list of potential benefi ts
for the versatile crop.
A major use of hemp
comes from deriving chem-
ical compounds in the plant,
called cannabinoids, which
can then be infused in prod-
ucts such as oils, creams
and oral supplements. Grow-
ing evidence suggests these
cannabinoids can help with
everything from relieving
pain and anxiety to stimulat-
ing appetite in cancer patients.
According to a recently
published OSU study, two
such compounds — specif-
ically cannabigerolic acid,
or CBGA, and cannabidi-
olic acid, or CBDA — can
also block SARS-CoV-2, the
virus that causes COVID-19,
from entering human cells
and preventing severe illness.
Richard van Breemen, a
professor of pharmaceutical
sciences at the Linus Paul-
ing Institute and OSU Col-
lege of Pharmacy, led the
study. He said hemp is not a
cure for COVID-19, nor is it
a replacement for face masks
and vaccines, but “another
piece in the armor to help
people stay healthy.”
“It’s going to help people.
At least that’s my hope,” van
Breemen said.
The way CBGA and
CBDA work against the virus
is similar to vaccines and
other antibodies, van Bree-
men said. By binding them-
selves to the virus’ signa-
ture spike proteins, the acids
essentially cut off a key path-
“OUR DATA SHOW
CBDA AND CBGA ARE
EFFECTIVE AGAINST
THE TWO VARIANTS
WE LOOKED AT, AND
WE HOPE THAT TREND WILL
EXTEND TO OTHER EXISTING
AND FUTURE VARIANTS.”
— Richard van Breemen, professor, OSU College of Pharmacy
way of infection.
Van Breemen and his
research team began inves-
tigating hemp molecules in
early 2020. At the time, lab
access at OSU was restricted
to
coronavirus-related
research.
“We looked for com-
pounds that could bind to
the spike protein, and hope-
fully prevent the virus from
infecting the human cell,”
van Breemen said.
Using a form of mass
spectrometry developed pre-
viously in the lab, the team
screened for compounds
across a range of botani-
cals and hemp extracts. They
identifi ed CBGA and CBDA
as having the highest affi n-
ity for binding to spike pro-
teins in SARS-CoV-2.
But their lab work could
only go so far, since they
were unable to test the com-
pounds on live virus sam-
ples. For that, the team part-
nered with Fikadu Tafesse
at Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University in Portland.
Results showed CBGA
and CBDA were equally
eff ective
against
the
virus and two early vari-
ants. However, van Bree-
men said more testing is
needed to gauge eff ective-
ness against other existing
and future virus mutations,
including the highly conta-
gious Omicron variant.
“These variants are well
known for evading anti-
bodies against early lineage
SARS-CoV-2, which is obvi-
ously concerning given that
current vaccination strate-
gies rely on the early lineage
spike protein as an antigen,”
van Breemen said.
“Our data show CBDA
and CBGA are eff ective
against the two variants we
looked at, and we hope that
trend will extend to other
existing and future variants,”
he added.
Another compound in lic-
orice was also found to bind
to the spike proteins during
the initial screening of botan-
icals, van Breemen said, but
has not yet been tested against
the live virus. “We need new
funding for that,” he said.
CBDA and CBGA are
abundant in hemp extracts,
and may actually require
less processing than canna-
bidiol, or CBD, one of the
more commonly marketed
cannabinoids.
Van Breemen, who serves
on the faculty for OSU’s
Global Hemp Innovation
Center, said the compounds,
if taken orally, appear to off er
a degree of protection and
could increase demand for
hemp production.
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S274758-1
b.
fe
6
A n n i v e r s a r
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