{"id":35794,"date":"2023-02-13T20:03:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T03:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/11-states-consider-right-to-repair-for-farming-equipment\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:27:19","slug":"11-states-consider-right-to-repair-for-farming-equipment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/11-states-consider-right-to-repair-for-farming-equipment\/","title":{"rendered":"11 states consider ‘right to repair’ for farming equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"In
In this photo provided by Danny Wood, a combine harvests grain on his farm in northeastern Colorado in July 2022. Wood's combine has broken down, but the manufacturer doesn't allow him to make certain fixes, forcing Wood to wait precious days for service. That's why lawmakers in Colorado and 10 other states have introduce bills that would force farming equipment manufacturers to provide the tools, software, parts and manuals needed for farmers to do their own repairs. (Danny Wood via The AP)<\/span>Danny Wood<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 On Colorado\u2019s northeastern plains, where the pencil-straight horizon divides golden fields and blue sky, a farmer named Danny Wood scrambles to plant and harvest proso millet, dryland corn and winter wheat in short, seasonal windows. That is until his high-tech Steiger 370 tractor conks out.<\/p>\n

The tractor\u2019s manufacturer doesn\u2019t allow Wood to make certain fixes himself, and last spring his fertilizing operations were stalled for three days before the servicer arrived to add a few lines of missing computer code for $950.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where they have us over the barrel, it\u2019s more like we are renting it than buying it,\u201d said Wood, who spent $300,000 on the used tractor.<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s plight, echoed by farmers across the country, has pushed lawmakers in Colorado and 10 other states to introduce bills that would force manufacturers to provide the tools, software, parts and manuals needed for farmers to do their own repairs \u2013 thereby avoiding steep labor costs and delays that imperil profits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manufacturers and the dealers have a monopoly on that repair market because it\u2019s lucrative,\u201d said Rep. Brianna Titone, a Democrat and one of the bill\u2019s sponsors. \u201c(Farmers) just want to get their machine going again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Colorado, the legislation is largely being pushed by Democrats while their Republican colleagues find themselves stuck in a tough spot: torn between right-leaning farming constituents asking to be able to repair their own machines and the manufacturing businesses that oppose the idea.<\/p>\n

The manufacturers argue that changing the current practice with this type of legislation would force companies to expose trade secrets. They also say it would make it easier for farmers to tinker with the software and illegally crank up the horsepower and bypass the emissions controller \u2013 risking operators\u2019 safety and the environment.<\/p>\n

Similar arguments around intellectual property have been leveled against the broader campaign called \u2018right to repair,\u2019 which has picked up steam across the country \u2013 crusading for the right to fix everything from iPhones<\/a> to hospital ventilators<\/a> during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Congress passed a law ensuring that car owners and independent mechanics \u2013 not just authorized dealerships \u2013 had access to the necessary tools and information to fix problems.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, the Federal Trade Commission pledged to beef up its right to repair enforcement<\/a> at the direction of President Joe Biden. And just last year, Titone sponsored and passed Colorado\u2019s first right to repair law, empowering people who use wheelchairs with the tools and information to fix them.<\/p>\n

For the right to repair farm equipment \u2013 from thin tractors used between grape vines to behemoth combines for harvesting grain that can cost more than half a million dollars \u2013 Colorado is joined by 10 states including Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Vermont.<\/p>\n

Many of the bills are finding bipartisan support, said Nathan Proctor, who leads Public Interest Research Group\u2019s national right to repair campaign. But in Colorado\u2019s House committee on agriculture, Democrats pushed the bill forward in a 9-4 vote along party lines, with Republicans in opposition even though the bill\u2019s second sponsor is Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really surprising, and that upset me,\u201d said the Republican Wood.<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s tractor, which flies an American flag reading \u201cFarmers First,\u201d isn\u2019t his only machine to break down. His grain harvesting combine was dropping into idle, but the servicer took five days to arrive on Wood\u2019s farm \u2013 a setback that could mean a hailstorm decimates a wheat field or the soil temperature moves beyond the Goldilocks zone for planting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur crop is ready to harvest and we can\u2019t wait five days, but there was nothing else to do,\u201d said Wood. \u201cWhen it\u2019s broke down, you just sit there and wait, and that\u2019s not acceptable. You can be losing $85,000 a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Richard Holtorf, the Republican who represents Wood\u2019s district and is a farmer himself, said he\u2019s being pulled between his constituents and the dealerships in his district covering the largely rural northeast corner of the state. He voted against the measure because he believes it will financially impact local dealerships in rural areas and could jeopardize trade secrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do sympathize with my farmers,\u201d said Holtorf, but he added, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the role of government to be forcing the sale of their intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the packed hearing last week that spilled into a second room in Colorado\u2019s Capitol, the core concerns raised in testimony were farmers illegally slipping around the emissions control and cranking up the horsepower.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know growers, if they can change horsepower and they can change emissions they are going to do it,\u201d said Russ Ball, sales manager at 21st Century Equipment, a John Deere dealership in Western states.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s proponents acknowledged that the legislation could make it easier for operators to modify horsepower and emissions controls, but argued that farmers are already able to tinker with their machines and doing so would remain illegal.<\/p>\n

This January, the Farm Bureau and the farm equipment manufacturer John Deere did sign a memorandum of understanding<\/a> \u2013 a right to repair agreement made in the free market and without government intervention. The agreement stipulates that John Deere will share some parts, diagnostic and repair codes, and manuals to allow farmers to do their own fixes.<\/p>\n

The Colorado bill\u2019s detractors laud that agreement as a strong middle ground while Titone said it wasn\u2019t enough, evidenced by six of Colorado\u2019s biggest farmworker associations that support the bill.<\/p>\n

Proctor, who is tracking 20 right to repair proposals in a number of industries across the country, said the memorandum of understanding has fallen far short.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers are saying no,\u201d Proctor said. \u201cWe want the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In this photo provided by Danny Wood is his tractor, sitting at his farm in northeastern Colorado in May 2022. Wood's tractor broke down once, but the manufacturer doesn't allow him to make certain fixes, forcing Wood to wait precious days for service. That's why lawmakers in Colorado and 10 other states have introduce bills that would force farming equipment manufacturers to provide the tools, software, parts and manuals needed for farmers to do their own repairs. (Danny Wood via AP)<\/span>Danny Wood<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Farmer
Farmer Nathan Weathers configures a high-power, high-tech quad-track tractor near his farm in Yuma, Colorado, June 30, 2008. Lawmakers in Colorado and 10 other states have introduced bills that would force farming equipment manufacturers to provide the tools, software, parts and manuals needed for farmers to do their own repairs. The bills are a response to farmers unable to repair their own tractors and combines, forcing them to wait sometimes days and paying steep labor costs. (Brian Brainerd\/The Denver Post via AP, file)<\/span>Brian Brainerd<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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