Texas and 10 other states consider farm equipment ‘right to repair’

DENVER (CBSDFW.COM/AP) On the northeastern plains of Colorado, where the skyline lines golden fields and blue skies like a pencil, a farmer named Danny Wood struggles to plant and harvest millet, dry corn and winter wheat during short seasonal windows. Until his high-tech Steiger 370 tractor fails.

The tractor manufacturer won’t let Wood do some of the fixing himself, and last spring his fertilizer operations were put on hold for three days before a service engineer arrived to add a few lines of missing $950 computer code.

“That’s where they keep us on the barrel, it’s more like we’re renting it than we’re buying it,” said Wood, who spent $300,000 on a used tractor.

Wood’s plight, supported by farmers across the country, prompted lawmakers in Colorado and 10 other states to introduce bills that would require manufacturers to provide the tools, software, parts, and manuals farmers need to repair themselves, thereby avoiding high labor costs. and delays that jeopardize profits.

“Manufacturers and dealers have a monopoly on this repair market because it’s profitable,” said Rep. Brianna Teaton, a Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors. “(Farmers) just want their machines to work again.”

In Colorado, the bill is being largely pushed by Democrats while their Republican counterparts find themselves in a quandary: they are torn between supporters of right-wing farmers who are asking for the ability to self-repair their machines, and manufacturing companies that oppose the idea.

Manufacturers argue that changing existing practices with this type of legislation would force companies to reveal trade secrets. They also say it will be easier for farmers to tinker with software and illegally increase power and bypass the emissions regulator, risking operator safety and the environment.

Similar intellectual property arguments have been raised against a broader Right to Repair campaign that has gained momentum across the country for the right to repair everything from iPhones to hospital ventilators during the pandemic.

In 2011, Congress attempted to pass a right-to-repair law for car owners and independent service centers. This bill did not pass, but a few years later, auto industry groups signed a memorandum of understanding to give owners and independent mechanics, not just authorized dealers, access to tools and information to troubleshoot problems.

In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission committed to strengthening its right to correct enforcement at the behest of President Joe Biden. And just last year, Titone sponsored and passed Colorado’s first right-to-repair law, providing wheelchair users with the tools and information to repair them.

From slender tractors used between vines to giant grain harvesters that can cost upwards of half a million dollars, Colorado has been joined by 10 states, including Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas, and Vermont, for the right to repair farm equipment. .

Many of the bills are bipartisan, said Nathan Proctor, who leads the public interest research group’s national renovation rights campaign. But in the Colorado House Agriculture Committee, the Democrats pushed the bill 9 to 4 along party lines, while the Republicans were in opposition, although the bill’s co-sponsor is Republican Ron Weinberg.

“It’s really amazing, and it upset me,” Republican Wood said.

Wood’s tractor, which flies the American flag that reads “Farmers First,” isn’t the only one that broke down. His combine harvester stopped working, but it took five days for attendants to arrive at Wood’s farm – a setback that could mean hail will destroy a wheat field or soil temperatures will go beyond the Goldilocks zone for planting.

“Our crop is ready for harvest and we can’t wait five days, but there was nothing to do,” Wood said. “When it breaks, you just sit and wait, and this is unacceptable. You can lose $85,000 a day.”

Rep. Richard Holtorf, a Republican who represents Wood’s area and is himself a farmer, said he is torn between his constituency and the dealerships in his area, covering the largely rural northeast corner of the state. He voted against the measure because he believes it would have a financial impact on local dealers in rural areas and could jeopardize trade secrets.

“I sympathize with my farmers,” Holtorf said, but added: “I don’t think the government’s role is to force them to sell their intellectual property.”

At last week’s crowded hearing, which took place in the second room of the Colorado Capitol, the main concerns voiced in testimony were that farmers had illegally eluded emissions controls and increased capacity.

“I know manufacturers, if they can change power and emissions, they will,” said Russ Ball, sales manager for 21st Century Equipment, a John Deere dealership in the western states.

The bill’s supporters acknowledged that the legislation could make it easier for operators to change capacity and control emissions, but argued that farmers could already tinker with their machines and it would remain illegal.

In January of this year, the Farm Bureau and farm equipment manufacturer John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding, a free-market, non-government right to repair agreement. The agreement stipulates that John Deere will share some parts, diagnostic and repair codes, and manuals so that farmers can troubleshoot themselves.

Detractors of the Colorado bill lauded the agreement as a solid middle ground, while Titone said it wasn’t enough, as evidenced by Colorado’s six largest farm workers’ associations that support the bill.

Proctor, who tracks 20 repair eligibility proposals across a range of industries across the country, said the MoU fell short of expectations.

“Farmers say no,” Proctor said. “We want the real.”