Ag show draws thousands

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Video from the Triumph of Agriculture Exposition at Qwest Center Omaha:



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Experts say the farm economy is soft, but on-the-ground intelligence says otherwise.

Sales of custom application equipment are strong, even at prices of $170,000 or more, according to Brian McCorkle, a representative of Riggins R-Co. Inc. of Marshall, Mo., which recently expanded to Yutan, Neb.

John Wilhelm, who cash-rents about 3,600 acres around Humboldt, Neb., said a farm in southeast Nebraska recently sold for $4,200 an acre. Wilhelm, who is 49 and has farmed all his life, shakes his head at such lofty prices.

“They won't live long enough to pay for it,” he said.

Wilhelm and McCorkle were among the thousands of exhibitors and visitors attending the Triumph of Agriculture Exposition at Qwest Center Omaha. The two-day show, which opened Wednesday morning, is expected to draw 15,000 to 20,000 people, said Bob Mancuso Jr.

This is the 44th year for Triumph of Agriculture, which Mancuso's father, Bob Mancuso Sr., organized in 1964. At age 76, he still is involved in the company he founded, Mid-America Expositions Inc., said his son.

More than 1,000 exhibitors filled Exhibition Hall with millions of dollars in gleaming tractors, pickup trucks, machinery and other farm-related products.

Mancuso said that by midafternoon Wednesday, 7,000 people had visited the show, which closes at 5 p.m. Thursday. That's a tremendous turnout, he said.

Farming is a numbers game, and Wilhelm has memorized the numbers that determine whether he operates at a profit: cash rent of $135 to $150 an acre; input cost of approximately $500 an acre, excluding crop insurance and interest on the operating loan; a minimum of 120 bushels of corn per acre to break even.

That's why he doesn't understand how some farmers can pay cash rent of as much as $250 an acre around Rulo, Neb. Market prices for corn recently have fluctuated from about $3.30 to $3.70, and Wilhelm said the numbers just don't add up.

But farmers need to be big to be profitable, and sometimes the competition among renters inflates prices. Buying land is out of the question for most young farmers.

“You have to marry it or inherit it,” Wilhelm said.

Rick Dettmann of Falls City, Neb., who came to the Omaha show with Wilhelm, farmed with his father until about 10 years ago, when he decided the money was better and the worries fewer elsewhere.

Dettmann now operates a bulldozer on pipeline installation projects, including Kinder Morgan's Rocky Express, a 1,679-mile natural gas pipeline that goes from Colorado to Ohio.

With certificates of deposit — the typical investment of older, conservative investors — paying less than 1 percent interest, Dettmann said, he understands why farmland prices can be bid up. Landowners conceivably could earn between 6 percent and 7 percent from cash rent and appreciation in value.

McCorkle said a group of private investors, Summit Equity Group of Des Moines, founded Riggins in 1998. The company opened its second store, which employs four people, near Nebraska Highway 92 in Yutan about a year ago, and Riggins does business nationwide and in Canada.

More farmers want to own their equipment so they can apply chemicals and fertilizer when they want and as often as they want, he said.

The six-figure price tags sound high, but the spreaders seem to last forever if properly maintained, McCorkle said, and typically pay for themselves in five or six years. Paying someone else can cost as much as $30,000 a year, he said.

McCorkle said business is good. Sales depend on yields and grain prices, of course, but a poor harvest or lower prices typically mean farmers will postpone a purchase until the following year, he said.

A farmer who buys an applicator won't buy another one for years — if ever — but he'll return to Riggins for parts or service, McCorkle said.

Contact the writer:

444-1050, pat.waters@owh.com

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