Farmers, groups push Deere for 'right to repair' tractors

A new report says dealership consolidation and repair restrictions by companies such as Deere and Co. are making it increasingly difficult for farmers to fix their own equipment.

Right to Repair Campaign Director Kevin O'Reilly and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, a consumer-advocacy group, released a report Thursday analyzing the number and location of agriculture equipment dealership chains from Deere, Case IH, AGCO and Kubota to see how dealership consolidation affects farmers' access to different dealers.

The report found dealership consolidation — in which Moline, Ill.-based Deere is the leader of the pack — takes away farmers' choice in who they want to work with on repairs.

This, paired with restrictions on who can access information and tools to fix equipment, makes it increasingly difficult for farmers to get machinery working again in a timely, cost-effective manner, according to the report.

Enacting right-to-repair rules — such as those included in a bill introduced to the Illinois House of Representatives — would ensure farmers and other companies have access to the information and tools necessary to maintain their machinery, allowing farmers to find the dealership that works best for them, or fix the problem themselves, according to the advocacy groups.

Asked how Deere is addressing the right-to-repair effort during its annual shareholder meeting Wednesday, CEO John May said Deere "supports a customer's right to safely maintain," diagnose and repair Deere’s fleet of increasingly technologically advanced and connected equipment.

"However, we do not support the right to modify embedded software," May said. "So we're going to do everything we can to provide the tools, information and manuals needed for our customers to work on their machines.

Multiple class-action complaints have been filed against Deere, alleging the company has monopolized the repair service market with onboard computers called engine control units, of which the software and tools necessary to fix are inaccessible to farmers and non-Deere repair shops.

According to Thursday's report, 82 percent of Deere's 1,357 dealerships are part of a large chain, which include seven or more locations.