Machinery Pete: Versatile Skid Steers, Used Tractors Are Hotter Than Fish Grease

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 21:18:37 GMT

What goes well alongside sweltering summer Midwest heat and humidity?

Well, if you answered used farm equipment auctions, you’re on the same wavelength as our used equipment-obsessed friend, Machinery Pete. He hit the road last week, capturing all of that sweet, sweet iron moving at auction.

All jokes aside, the extreme heat and humidity that hit the Upper Midwest this weekend can indeed be a bad omen for farm auction results, Pete says. Good thing there’s plenty of online auctions this summer so you can avoid the sweaty, sunburned crowds while still getting down on all the bidding action.

Here’s a quick sample of what Pete says stood out from the past seven days of red-hot farm equipment auction sales:

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

In an online Pifer Group auction that pulled used farm equipment from Minnesota and the Dakotas, a 2024 John Deere 335 P-Tier skid steer (pictured above) with 275 hours sold for $94,000. Pete says that’s a pretty good deal considering the only comparable model listed for sale at MachineryPete.com right now is a 2025 335 P-Tier. That bad boy starts at $159,000, though.

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

And a 2009 John Deere 325I skid steer with only 124 hours on it sold for $36,000 at the Harry and Lola Blackburn farm estate sale in Iowa.

On the tractor front, on Tuesday of last week, the folks at DPA Auctions moved a pair of late-model John Deere tractors that originated from farms in South Dakota.

(DPA Auctions)

In that sale, two 2024 John Deere 8R 280 MFWD tractors, one with just under 1,200 hours (pictured above) and another with 1,451 hours on it, sold for $315,000 and $296,000, respectively.

“Those were both above the average auction price this year, which is just over $282,600,” Pete says. “And interestingly, that’s up from last year’s average which was just over $258,000.”

And finally, Pete’s “Pick of the Week” is a pair of used tractors:

(Machinery Pete Facebook)

At the Blackburn estate auction in Iowa, a Gold Key Certified 2009 John Deere 7230 Premium 2WD tractor (above) with only 1,076 hours sold for $94,500.

And at the Al Bruhn farm auction sale Saturday in Mapleton, Iowa, a vintage 1968 International Harvester 756 German diesel tractor set a new all-time record at $29,000. The previous high for that year/model was $21,000.

Auction to Watch This Week

Sullivan Auctioneers and Big Iron Auctions is having a “No Reserve Dealer Inventory Reduction” online auction for Sinclair Tractor featuring a huge collection of machines from the dealer’s Iowa stores. Check out the video preview from auctioneer Dan Sullivan above.

Your Next Read: Farmers Are in the Buying Mindset for Used Equipment

Machinery Pete: Livestock Demand Pushes Loader Tractors Up, Late Model Glut Marches On

Tue, 14 May 2024 19:12:37 GMT

Machinery Pete – Greg Peterson – selected a pair of used John Deere tractors this week as his Pete’s Pick of the Week during his Monday morning appearance with host Chip Flory on AgriTalk Radio.

Peterson highlighted a 1988 two-wheel drive John Deere 4450 tractor with a loader (4,028 original hours) that was auctioned off in Calumet, Oklahoma, at a consignment sale helmed by Elite Auction Company. It went for an even $70,000, which Machinery Pete says is the highest price he’s witnessed this year on a used 4450 tractor. That same model’s average auction price over the last 24 years comes in at just over $36,000 – so this sale achieved nearly double the average sale price.

His second Pick of the Week also came from The Badger State: a 1989 John Deere 4455 two-wheel drive loader tractor with 1,238 original hours that went for $71,000. That sale occured last Friday in Oxford, Wisconsin, at a farm auction led by Gavin Brothers Auctioneers.

Machinery Pete says these types of tractors are being targeted by livestock producers.

“The livestock sector has been really strong, obviously,” Peterson says. “So good used equipment in that realm has held up stronger than the big grain side.”

Late Model Used Softening

While the older four- and two-wheel drive tractor market continues charting up and to the right, Peterson is noticing late model, large horsepower tractor prices “recalibrating pretty aggressively softer.”

He points to an equipment dealer with shops in Illinois and Missouri that recently held a sale with a staggering 523 used late model, high horsepower John Deere tractors on the lot.

A 2023 Model 8RX 410 with only 431 operating hours, still under factory warranty, brought $426,000 at auction, which Pete notes is the second lowest price on a used 8RX 410. Nine months ago at an auction in Michigan a 2022 8RX 410 went for $520,642.

Another example was a 2023 8R 310 tractor with 468 operating hours that sold for $289,000 – the lowest price Pete has recorded on that model this year. A similar model in January sold for $350K at auction.

“It’s focused on the late models – the one, two, three-year-old ones – that’s where we’re seeing the biggest (price) drops,” Peterson says. “Farmers are under pressure, and there’s more of them sitting on the used lot today than 18 months ago.”

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Pete's Pick

Machinery Pete: Versatile Skid Steers, Used Tractors Are Hotter Than Fish Grease

Machinery Pete: Livestock Demand Pushes Loader Tractors Up, Late Model Glut Marches On

Late Model Used Softening