I don’t think many farmers are overstocking or hoarding, but a lot of operations are trying to get prepped for what seems to be the inevitable shortage of parts and supplies. This week I called for some parts and was told it would be 70 days before they would build them. That is a 3-month lead time before they got from manufacturer to distributor to dealership to me!

A friend of mine also reported random common items he requested have been out of stock. I don’t know what is going to happen when we get to the less common (more complex) machine-specific parts that we don’t plan on having to replace. It doesn’t matter if you order something, machine down if there is no part on the shelf to ship!

Yesterday, we sent mom down to the wholesale parts distributor to pick up a load of points, blades, bearings, and other wear items we expect to use this fall. Even though we didn’t order a lot of extra, we knew the truck was riding a little low. On several items, I was not able to secure my first choice (of styles, widths, etc.) and had to choose what was available. Inventory is limited and though they placed orders months ago, delivery dates have not been confirmed.

This week we also received a couple crates of parts we had to order through the manufacturer supply chain. More of our parts order remains on backorder. Additionally, there are a couple parts sitting on the counter in Rochester for us to pick up the next time we go past. These are parts that are out of manufacturer stock that I was able to locate in dealer inventory and get transferred to the nearest store.

So, there is a long line of equipment outside the shop needing work done before we start harvest. A look out the truck window between my house and the farm indicates we don’t have much time to get it done. I haven’t walked out to pull ears, but our early planted early maturity corn has to be getting close to black layer. The husks are turning brown even though the stalks remain green.

This heat is pushing the crop along quickly. We will probably be harvesting by the 10^th of September, if not sooner!

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.