JOHNSTON COUNTY, N.C. — John Deere and the American Farm Bureau Federation have reached an agreement that gives farmers the right to repair their own machines.
What You Need To Know
Farmers have been given the right to repair by John Deere
They can now diagnose codes without calling a licensed service tech
The agreement is the result of years of negotiation
This agreement comes after several years of discussion aimed at giving farmers the option of performing their own mechanics while still protecting John Deere’s intellectual property rights.
“Throughout the years I've just got accustomed to working with these computers and figuring out how to go through them and self-diagnose problems to a certain degree,” TJ Sasser said. “Until I get to a dead-end road where at that point I have to call a service tech.”
Sasser is the farm manager at Kornegay Family Farms and says their fleet of John Deere tractors keeps mechanics busy in the shop all year long.
“Several years ago it would have been a whole lot more probable for a farmer to pull their own tractor into the shop and go to work on it, dissecting it,” Sasser said. “I remember doing that as a kid and but now with these computers, I mean, it could be one of hundreds of different things wrong.”
Because of this agreement they will now have the information and technology at their disposal to repair the equipment themselves if they choose. For John Deere dealers and mechanics this means a likely decrease in the number of calls they receive that turn out to be minor maintenance issues, which Sasser said ultimately saves everyone time.
“We’re still going to have to have help,” Sasser said. “We're not trying to obsolete them out or dissolve them out of our operation. We're just trying to better maximize and utilize the time that we have.”
A senior vice president with John Deere said in a press release that their goal is to “ensure farmers continue to have the tools and resources to diagnose, maintain and repair their equipment.”
“I think this new technology would not only help us, but it would help them as well, as crazy as it may sound,” Sasser said. “A lot of these little things that they have to go through could probably be dealt with on farm a whole lot easier.”
Sasser said each individual operation will have to determine how the new arrangement will impact their own farm and what makes the most sense in terms of making repairs.
“For us, it's just a matter of figuring out, is it better for them or is it better for us to do it,” Sasser said.
John Deere and the AFBF plan to meet twice a year to evaluate the agreement and its success.