Right to repair will help in S.D.

The Federal Trade Commission and John Deere recently agreed to a deal that will help farmers and independently owned repair shops nationwide here in South Dakota.

Under this new agreement, farmers and local repair shops will be able to access the tools they need to fix their John Deere equipment just like equipment dealers can.

For years, only dealers could repair this farming equipment. If something broke, a farmer had to haul equipment 50 or even 100 miles to the nearest dealer and wait, sometimes for days, to see a service truck. Crops could not wait, and while the combine sat broken, money was lost.

In 2014, I authored Senate Bill 139 to address this very issue. We moved the discussion forward, but faced strong opposition from dealers and manufacturers, and the bill did not pass. Agreements like this one are a huge step toward moving the industry in the right direction—even if it has taken longer than many of us hoped.

Quick repairs protect the harvest and are good for a farmer’s bank account. Long-term, they also keep families strong and help the small towns that they live in thriving.

Every extra hour the equipment is working means more grain in the bin and more money in the bank. That matters, especially when prices are tight and costs are high.

South Dakota is a farming state through and through — more than 87 percent of our land, 42 million acres, is used for farms and ranches, one of the highest percentages in the country. So, when our farmers run their own machines without delays, it helps everyone. Local businesses that sell parts or fix equipment get more work. Farming families have steadier incomes. Towns stay stronger because money circulates locally.

But the biggest win is for families and traditions. Many South Dakota farms have been in the same family for 150 years or more.

Farmers love to talk about their grandfathers who could fix anything with a wrench. Modern machines have computers and sensors now, so things have gotten a little more complicated. But thanks to this new agreement, a mom or dad on the farm can teach their kids both the old mechanical skills and the new computer side of things even in this digital, higher tech age. Children who want to take over the family farm can learn how to handle and repair these high-tech tractors.

If you paid good money for your equipment, then it’s rightfully yours.

Thanks to this new development with John Deere, farmers can now spend less time fighting with broken equipment and more time doing what they do best — growing food for the rest of us.

At the end of the day, this is about basic, American fairness. After all, what would Grandpa say about a tractor you can’t work on? He’d probably say what South Dakota farmers have known all along: if you own it, you should be able to fix it.

Thanks to the FTC, John Deere, and the tireless efforts of repair advocates, that’s what we can look forward to.

Isaac Latterell
Former member of the South Dakota House of Representatives and a former Majority Whip.