Farmers seek tractor repair rights
Bills aim to force firms to let owners make fixes themselves
DENVER — On Colorado’s northeastern plains, where the pencil-straight horizon divides golden fields and blue sky, Danny Wood scrambles to plant and harvest proso millet, dryland corn and winter wheat in short, seasonal windows — until his high-tech Steiger 370 tractor conks out.
The tractor’s manufacturer doesn’t allow Wood to make certain fixes himself, and last spring, his fertilizing operations were stalled for three days before an approved tech arrived to add a few lines of missing computer code for $950, he said.
“That’s where they have us over the barrel; it’s more like we are renting it than buying it,” said Wood, who spent $300,000 on the used tractor.
Wood’s plight, echoed by other farmers across the country, has pushed lawmakers in Colorado and 10 other states to introduce bills that would force manufacturers to provide the tools, software, parts and manuals needed for farmers to do their own repairs — thereby avoiding steep labor costs and delays that imperil profits.
“The manufacturers and the dealers have a monopoly on that repair market because it’s lucrative,” said Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone, a Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors. “(Farmers) just want to get their machine going again.”
The manufacturers argue that changing the current practice with this type of legislation would force companies to expose trade secrets. They also say it would make it easier for farmers to tinker with the software and illegally crank up the horsepower and bypass the emissions controller — risking operators’ safety and the environment.
Similar arguments around
intellectual property have been leveled against the broader campaign called “right to repair,” which has picked up steam across the country — crusading for the right to fix everything from iPhones to hospital ventilators.
In 2011, Congress passed a law ensuring car owners and independent mechanics — not just authorized dealerships — had access to the necessary tools and information to fix problems.
Ten years later, the Federal Trade Commission pledged to beef up its right-to-repair enforcement at the direction of President Joe Biden. And just last year, Titone sponsored and passed Colorado’s first right-torepair law, empowering people who use wheelchairs with the tools and information to fix them.
For the right to repair farm equipment — from thin tractors used between grape vines to behemoth combines for harvesting grain that can cost over $500,000 — Colorado is joined by 10 states including Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Vermont.
Many of the bills are finding bipartisan support, said Nathan Proctor, who leads Public Interest Research Group’s national right to repair campaign. But in Colorado’s House committee on agriculture, Democrats pushed the bill forward in a 9-4 vote along party lines, with Republicans in opposition even though the bill’s second sponsor is Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg.
“That’s really surprising, and that upset me,” said the Republican Wood.
Wood’s tractor, which flies an American flag reading “Farmers First,” isn’t his only machine to break down. His combine was dropping into idle, but the required tech took five days to arrive on Wood’s farm — a setback that could mean a hail storm decimating a wheat field or the soil temperature moving beyond the optimal range for planting.
“Our crop is ready to harvest, and we can’t wait five days, but there was nothing else to do,” said Wood. “When it’s broke down, you just sit there and wait, and that’s not acceptable. You can be losing $85,000 a day.”
Colorado state Rep. Richard Holtorf, a Republican and farmer who represents Wood’s district, said he’s being pulled between his constituents and the dealerships in his district covering the largely rural northeast corner of the state. Holtorf said he voted against the measure because he believes it will financially impact local dealerships in rural areas and could jeopardize trade secrets.
“I do sympathize with my farmers,” said Holtorf, but added: “I don’t think it’s the role of government to be forcing the sale of their intellectual property.”
At the packed hearing last week that spilled into a second room in Colorado’s Capitol, the core concerns raised in testimony were farmers illegally slipping around the emissions control and cranking up the horsepower.
“I know growers, if they can change horsepower and they can change emissions they are going to do it,” said Russ Ball, sales manager at 21st Century Equipment, a John Deere dealership in Western states.
The bill’s proponents acknowledged the legislation could make it easier for operators to modify horsepower and emissions controls but argued that farmers are already able to tinker with their machines and doing so would remain illegal.
In January, the Farm Bureau and the farm equipment manufacturer John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding — a right to repair agreement made in the free market and without government intervention. The agreement stipulates that John Deere will share some parts, diagnostic and repair codes, and manuals to allow farmers to fix their own equipment.
The Colorado bill’s detractors laud that agreement as a strong middle ground while Titone said it wasn’t enough, evidenced by six of Colorado’s biggest farmworker associations that support the bill.
Proctor, who is tracking 20 right to repair proposals in a number of industries across the country, said the memorandum of understanding has fallen far short.
“Farmers are saying no,” Proctor said. “We want the real thing.”