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Celebrating Agriculture With National Ag Day
In the early decades of the raising crops and livestock, homes and shelter. Food was
United States farm, families making their own clothes, primarily grown or raised to
were self-sufficient. They gathering fuel for heating and feed the family. Since the
provided for themselves by cooking, and constructing their 1800 s, science and technology
Ag Equipment Service Builds on Past Success, Emerging Trends
As ag equipment companies
look for ways to thrive in a
down economy, farmers are
seeing big changes in how
these companies do business,
including providing service
and maintenance for their
machines. In many cases,
farmers are seeing a rise in on
site service as some dealer
ships consolidate or close.
Some companies, such as
Caterpillar, are looking to the
past as well as the future for
information on what makes a
strong service program.
According to Caterpillar man
agement, years of experience
in other industries can provide
a looking glass for the industry
on how to support farmers
whored it.
Capitalize on Equipment
Investment
“We want our customers to
get all the value they pay for
when they buy a Challenger(r)
tractor,” says Rae Kurth,
Agriculture Business Unit
manager, Ziegler Inc.,
Minneapolis, Minn., a long
Agriculture Step by Step
time Caterpillar dealership.
“Caterpillar has designed a lot
of rebuildability into its
tractors, but in order to take
advantage of that, owners need
to think about their machine’s
long-term care and
maintenance.”
Preventing problems is what
Caterpillar has been doing in
all its businesses for years.
“We’ve always emphasized
that components have life
limits on the industrial side,”
says Kent Lynch, Caterpillar
service engineer. “It’s no
different with our ag
equipment. Components signal
their wear through reduced
tractor-performance, noise or
abnormal oil samplings. These
indicators can help farmers
replace worn parts before
complete failure causes costly
down time.”
To help farmers manage their
equipment, Caterpillar recom
mends regular preventive
maintenance, including oil
sampling in all component
reservoirs. “Oil sampling is a
very accurate piedictor of
problem areas and can help
prevent catastrophic failures,”
Kurth notes. “A bearing that
seizes and goes to complete
failure may damage a lot of
other parts, such as gears and
shafts, that would not have
needed replacement if the
initial problem had been
caught before failure.”
Most Caterpillar dealerships
are equipped with labs for oil
sample analysis to detect
materials that indicate
component wear. As owners
compile a sampling history,
technicians can tell when
something out of the ordinary
is occurring and make
recommendations to deal with
the problem.
Service in the Field
How to service
equipment quickly is another
lesson Caterpillar has learned
from its construction business.
Caterpillar has found the best
way to service machines can be
to bring the repair shop to the
field when that makes the most
Farm and Home Section, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 18,2000 -13
have helped make agriculture
more productive. Around
1850, each U.S. farmer
produced enough food to feed
five people. By 1940, one
farmer grew or raised enough
to feed 19 people.
Today, the United States is the
most productive agricultural
country in the world, with a
diversity ranging from orange
groves and cotton farms to
cranberry bogs and fish farms.
Each U.S. farmer produces
food and fiber for 129 people -
101 in the United States and 28
in other countries. The United
States has 6 percent of the
world’s land area and its
farmers produce 16 percent of
the world’s food supply. In the
mid-1990s about 975 million
acres of land were committed
to farming, either as cropland,
grazing land, timberland or
fish farms.
The United States had about 2
million farms in the mid
19905, including more than
145,000 farms operated by
women. The average farm size
was 478 acres. A farm is
defined as any establishment
that sells, or would normally
sell, $l,OOO or more of
agricultural products during
the year. The farm population
of 4.6 million people
represents about 1.9 percent of
the total population.
Today, most Americans do
not grow or raise their own
food. There are now several
steps and numerous people and
careers involved in the
production process of getting
the food from the field to the
consumer. In general, the
production process involves
three primary groupings: raw
goods producer, middleman
and consumer. Numerous
sense.
“Just like the construction
industry, service response time
in agriculture is critical,” Kurth
notes. “We don’t necessarily
try to pick up machines and
bring them into our shops-we
do as much work as possible in
the field. We can be far more
responsive that way.”
Caterpillar mobile service
units go from one job to the
next, unencumbered by service
bay scheduling challenges that
can delay repairs at dealership
shops. “Building space and
scheduling limitations can be
obstacles to prompt service,”
Kurth explains. “When our
serviceman arrives, he’s ready
to go to work. He has a laptop
computer on board for
communicating with the
dealership, and to resource
technical data, obtain machine
history and order parts.”
Service of the Future
Just as technology
advancements have brought
computers and cell phones to
today’s mobile service units.
people are involved with the
work in each of these primary
groupings. The final group, the
consumer, is you, family
friends, anyone who purchases
and/or uses the final product.
Every step of the production
process requires numerous
resources and involves many
careers. Agriculture and its
related industries provide jobs
for almost 23 million people in
the United States. In addition;
* Nearly two million people
operate or are employed
directly in farming
* About four million people
produce the machinery and
resources used on the farm or
process and market whal
farmers produce.
* More than 17 million people
are employed in wholesale and
retail operations to get farm
products to the consumer.
Agriculture offers many
challenging and fulfilling
careers, both in farmin gand
ranching and in related
industries. The wide variety
includes farm managers; farm
economists; food scientists:
seed producers; fertilizer
manufacturers; crop
consultants; plant and animal
scientists; food inspectors:
agricultural teachers:
agricultural pilots; cooperative
extension agents; soil scientists;
pesticide product developers;
distributors; shipping
personnel; storage personnel;
marketing specialists; sales
people; designers and
manufacturers of various
bottles, cans, bags and boxes;
agricultural journalists and
photographers; nutritionists;
truck drivers; utility personnel;
supermarket managers; and
many others.
further developments will
bring more service-related
enhancements in the next few
years, Lynch predicts.
“One of our dealers has
already installed enhanced
GPS units on its rental
Challengers, which com
municate data about the
machines’ location and oper
ation to the dealership,” Lynch
notes. “Hours of use and
engine parameters are relayed
to dealer managers who
monitor maintenance needs.
Similar technology will likely
be available for customers’
tractors within the next few
years.”
As ag equipment dealerships
continue to consolidate and
cover larger geographical
areas, Kurth foresees other
companies moving towards
Caterpillar’s service philo
sophy. “If you look at the
likely paradigm for the ag
dealership of the future, I think
it’s going to look pretty similar
to what Cat dealers are doing
today.”