Last Tuesday, dozens of Tennessee farmers and advocates visited the state capitol for Ag Day on the Hill, a celebration of the state’s agricultural industry. Between the annual straw bale-tossing competition —in which members of the House, Senate and executive branch separate into teams — and an acknowledgement of 4-H and Future Farmers of America chapters from across the state, a vocal group of advocates shared a clear message with the lawmakers present: Tennessee farmers want the right to repair their own tractors.
In recent decades, as farming technology becomes increasingly computerized, agricultural equipment manufacturers like John Deere have imposed certain anticompetitive restrictions on who can repair the products they sell. In many cases, farmers do not actually acquire ownership rights to the software embedded in their tractors. Instead, they receive a license to use the software needed to operate them.
As such, manufacturers are concerned about both the protection of intellectual property, as well as “the very real damage to the environment [and] consumer safety” that would come from giving customers from full access to the “materials, such as repair manuals, and tools, such as, diagnostic software to enable the property owner to repair the property themselves,” according to The National Agricultural Law Center.
Simultaneously, there’s a growing group of farmers who say these restrictions are deeply impacting their businesses and profitability. Tennessee isn’t the first state to consider “right to repair” bills; more than a dozen states have also introduced similar legislation following Colorado historic decision in 2022 to approve the first “right to repair” law in the country, which protected wheelchair owners' right to fix their own mobility devices and was later expanded to include agricultural equipment. This has prompted manufacturers to push back with increased intensity, making “right to repair” one of the defining agricultural issues of this generation.
When speaking during Tennessee’s Ag Day on the Hill, the Farm Action Fund's Senior Policy Advisor on Right to Repair, Willie Cade, thanked Rep. Justin Jones and Sen. Sara Kyle for introducing Tennessee’s right to repair bill (HB2029/SB2035).
“Our farmers have been able to fix their own farm equipment for more than a century, and they thrive on this spirit of self-sufficiency,” Cade said. “Repair restrictions cost farmers precious money and time. Since equipment dealers simply don’t have the workforce needed to serve farmers during harvest season, our farmers must be able to fix their equipment on their own.”
Jess Wilson, Board President of the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers, emphasized that repair restrictions are particularly felt by early-career farmers.
“Many farmers within our network depend on older equipment because it is more affordable and it can be repaired either by the farmer or by a local mechanic,” Wilson said. “Because of high prices and proprietary technology that can only be repaired by a dealer, new agricultural technologies are often out of reach for young and beginning farmers.”
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However, manufacturers say that as equipment has become more digitally complex, sweeping “right to repair” laws don’t fully consider the implications for both technological innovation and industry compliance. According to the National Agricultural Law Center, “many manufacturing companies agree with farmers’ belief that they should have the right-to-repair their agricultural equipment; however, the two sides disagree on which limitations should be implemented.”
“Manufacturers worry that if equipment owners are given access to source code, they could override safety features and jeopardize the equipment’s compliance with environmental and emissions standards,” they write. “Additionally, they worry that innovation in equipment development could be hindered by both a patchwork of state standards and a minimalization of value in intellectual property.”
In 2018, to address the already mounting pressure from consumers regarding “right to repair,” two industry groups — the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the Equipment Dealers Association — released a statement of principles to help satisfy farmer’s demand for repairability by 2021. In it, they said manufacturers and dealers would make available: manuals, product guides, product service demonstrations or seminars, fleet management information, on-board diagnostics via port or wireless interface, and electronic field diagnostic service tools (and training on how to use them).
At the time, AEM president Dennis Slater said equipment manufacturers were proud to offer customers “common sense solutions” to easily make simple repairs to their tractors or combines, or assess when to involve a dealer.
“This strikes the right balance in the way ‘right to repair’ legislation would not,” he said.
“Manufacturers and dealers invest considerable resources in making sure their customers have what they need to be successful,” EDA President Kim Rominger said in a 2018 statement. “This commitment by our industry is a market solution to a market need. Dealers and manufacturers will ensure that end users have the tools they need to perform maintenance and basic repairs on their equipment and to allow them to quickly identify more serious issues, which require the assistance of a dealer. Simply put, our industry commitment is to ensure that folks have the ‘right to repair’ while continuing to work against attempts to improperly modify equipment so as to compromise safety and emissions features.”
This has resulted in a few shifts in the industry. For instance, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, in 2022, John Deere began allowing customers and independent repair shops to obtain a diagnostics tool — which had been available previously through dealers — through its website.
In 2023, the American Farm Bureau Federation and John Deere signed and released a memorandum of understanding, which formalized what information will be made available for the upkeep and repair of John Deere agricultural equipment. Companies including AGCO, CLAAS of America, CNH Industrial (including Case IH and New Holland) and Kubota have signed similar documents. However, many farmers want these commitments — which, in the case of John Deere, is specifically characterized as “a voluntary private sector commitment to outcomes rather than legislative or regulatory measures” with a provision that the memorandum can be terminated if any “right to repair” bills are passed — codified into law.
"If they truly, honestly wanted to give farmers and ranchers and independent repair shops the right to repair equipment, why are they so afraid of legislation that authorizes that?" Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union, told NPR.
In Tennessee, there is still a long way to go for their “right to repair” bill to become law. According to local reports, the bill has been killed for this session, meaning it has been deferred for consideration until the summer.
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