Farmers with unfavorable opinions on the right to repair (R2R) battle controversy are good at summing up their thoughts in a few words:

• Corporate greed
• A power play for equipment control
• An excuse to increase sky-high hourly service rates
• Antitrust, anti-monopoly concerns
• A ploy to squeeze out independent repair shops
• Manufacturer/Farm Bureau “agreements” are a joke
• Far-reaching federal government control (vs. states)
• It’s my machine — I’ll decide who can repair it

Many of these growers maintain that R2R opponents have ulterior, self-serving motives. They aren’t looking out for the best interests of farmers.

Yet a recent survey of our grower audiences showed two-thirds see R2R as a major problem, such as these three farmers explain:

A Colorado farmer bought a $300,000 used Steiger tractor and lost 3 days for repairs while seeding wheat. The tractor was out of service until a service tech finally spent 20 minutes adding a few lines of missing computer code and wrote out a bill for $950.

A combine in Kansas kept dropping into idle. It took 5 days before a service tech arrived for what was a simple fix. This Kansas grower estimated his losses at $85,000 per day due to poor weather conditions that delayed harvest.

When a high horsepower tractor died, its sophisticated transmission made it difficult to transport to the dealership. Eventually a tech determined the stereo sound system radio, which was on the same module that powered the engine, had shorted out. This led to a 4-day loss of…