Missouri farmers step up equipment upgrades

With corn prices 60 percent higher now than they were in June, Missouri farmers are more able to upgrade their equipment.
With corn prices 60 percent higher now than they were in June, Missouri farmers are more able to upgrade their equipment.
Higher crop prices are enabling Missouri farmers to upgrade the machinery and equipment they use to reap the harvest, according to published reports.

Corn and soybeans, whose prices now are 60 percent higher than they were in June, are two staples that have prompted farmers to upgrade the more sophisticated tools of their trade, according to the University of Missouri Extension. A Southeast Missouri equipment salesman said tractors, combines and cotton pickers are the most asked about machines.

"We've seen some increase," Gary Kight, a salesman at Sikeston Implement, told the Southeast Missourian. "I really don't think it's solely because of the higher market prices, but it's probably going to help a little bit. People buy and trade because they need to, and everything happened to fall into place this year."

Mike Pobst, the president of Allied Bank in Sikeston, said more inquiries about purchases have come from farmers this year as compared to last year. An auctioneer speculated as to why more farmers are feeling freer about making purchases.

"The farm economy is good," Gary DeWitt, vice president of DeWitt Auction Company, told the publication.