Auction of Smith Farms in North Dakota Ushers in Busy Season
With 25,000 acres to farm, North Dakota farmer Nathan Smith likes to keep his equipment updated regularly. But when he set out to do some trading for the upcoming crop year, he saw an opportunity to save money by selling in a Steffes auction. As it turned out, he figures he saved about $30,000.
And through it all, he said he was pleased with the service and the results. “There’s great value in the way they know the market. I gave Steffes the confidence that they could get my goal met, and they did. They were extremely professional, and I could call (Representative Brad Olstad) any time and he always answered,” said Smith.
The auction included a 2009 John Deere 9630 with 4,051 hours that went for $130,000. Another highlight was a 2010 John Deere 9230, with 3,893 hours, that sold for $139,000.
“We’ve been saying all along that the market is rewarding clean, well-maintained equipment. Nathan paid a great deal of attention to the details, keeping his tractors waxed and polished and stored inside. People saw value in that even when his equipment was higher mileage than some,” said Brad. “He also sold several 2012-2013 hopper bottoms at prices hovering around the 24,000 - 26,000 range, which lowered his overall cost of trading up,” he said.
The auction was one of the first opportunities to directly assess the strength of the equipment market at auction, but we’ll have a lot more coming up, with six equipment auctions by the end of February. We’ll be seeing a lot more land sales in the coming weeks, too. And while we constantly monitor industry data on land prices, there’s just no substitute for the knowledge we gain from our own auctions.
If you’ve got machinery, land or other assets to sell, give us a call. We have locations in North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska, with options including live, online or consignment auctions.
