Self-Propelled Sprayer Supplies Grow as Turns Slow

Self-propelled sprayers have seen a significant shift in supply and demand dynamics over the past year, with dealership supply up by 20% compared to the same period last year, and commodity prices taking an equally sized swing, but in the opposite direction! This dynamic change in supply and demand has not been uniform across all types of sprayers, with differences based on regionality and with the biggest swings taking place most recently. 

In this post, I am going to highlight a few of the points from Tractor Zoom’s 2024 Self-Propelled Sprayer Analysis, which is an in-depth look at the entire market, complete with the changing supply across the country, how this has affected individual hour categories and certain models, plus guidance on how your dealership can access this information on your own, when and where you need it. 

Since last summer’s peak in supply, dealerships have been employing various strategies to move inventory, including increased use of auctions. The number of self-propelled sprayers sold at auctions surged in December 2023, a notable increase compared to any previous month that Tractor Zoom has on record.

One of the biggest insights uncovered in Tractor Zoom’s complete sprayer analysis is the absence of the “second buyer”. The segments of sprayer supply that have increased disproportionately faster are the low hour, higher-value models. This change is even more apparent when compared to the previous two years where those late-models were difficult to find. This surge in supply has placed a strain on most dealerships’ carrying costs, and certainly contributes to the point above about the record high number of sprayers sold via dealership auctions. 

Differences between geographies and brands have an effect on this market as well. Part of this likely has to do with the profitability of farmers across different growing regions of the US last year, and production quantities of various brands of sprayers from the last decade. If your dealership has substantial sprayer inventory, benchmarking your turns to compare against the national, regional, and manufacturers’ average can be a useful form of feedback. 

For the national average, we’ve seen Q1 average turns of sprayers (by units) move in the following path: 

Understanding this trend can help you and your dealership not only prepare for a change in pace of sales, but also evaluate your prior marketing and pricing efforts. I walk through how I calculated these figures in the full sprayer analysis here. 

It is important to note that while these downward trends are a sign of the agricultural industry entering into a trough cycle, this territory is not uncharted. Down times also present opportunities to improve your dealership and aid your farmers. Those methods and ways that we all do business will just look different than they have the previous three years.