Spending last week in Omaha, Neb., for Farm Equipment’s Dealerships Minds Summit focused on remarketing used equipment, I thought about some of the challenges and opportunities dealers are seeing in this area on the precision side.

With tighter farm incomes, being able to attract customers with affordable entry points into precision products has become more appealing for dealers. Applying lessons learned and shared by farm equipment dealers for remarketing used machinery is shaping the philosophy of Chris Winkelbauer, precision farming manager with Central Valley Co-op, based in York, Neb.

We caught up with Winkelbauer at this year’s Dealership Minds Summit to get his perspective on the co-op’s strategy and objectives with selling used precision systems.

“Up until the last couple of year here, our approach was to shy away from it, to be honest. And we could get away with it at that time. Guys were looking for the newer equipment and we moved them into that. Moving forward now, with the way things are, we’ve had to take some of that (used precision hardware) in on trade. So, what do we do with it? That’s kind of why we’re here and to get a better handle on do we try to put that online and move it our of our area? Do we move it into other growers in our area to at least get them a step in the door of seeing what the technology can do on their farm. I think there’s a lot left on the table that we’re not utilizing that used equipment to our advantage to at least get guys in the door, seeing a little bit about what it can do for them, so they don’t have to take that big jump right away.”     

Winkelbauer added that more customers are looking for proven return on investment prior to making precision purchases and being able to prove that with older technology can lead to a long-term business relationship.