Uber for farmers | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

Cool idea, seems scheduling could be an issue though

Jordan Hickel has a long row of ultra-expensive tractors and other machinery parked on his farm in central Kansas.

“There’s well over a million dollars of equipment out here,” the 31-year-old farmer said, waving his hand at the vehicles while walking toward the crown jewel of his collection: A bright red 8120 CASE IH combine that he uses to harvest corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat.

But Hickel uses the towering machine only two months out of the year.

This summer, he’s shipping the combine off to Colorado then Washington state — renting it out to other farmers through a website that hopes to bring the sharing economy to the farmstead.

Think Uber — but for tractors.

The site, MachineryLink Sharing, is the brainchild of a Kansas City company that started about 15 years ago as a traditional combine leasing business. Last year it launched the website that helps farmers make money by renting their equipment to those who can't afford the cost of buying the machines outright.

“This is a big idea,” said MachineryLink president Jeff Dema — and one that comes as growers are struggling in the face of low crop prices that the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects will help make 2016 the least profitable year for America’s farm sector in more than a decade.

The platform now has more than 1,200 users and features “tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment,” according to the company. Listings show several hundred different tractors, planters and combines available for rent around the country.

Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, who will soon release a book about the sharing economy, said the approach has a lot of potential.

“The pure peer-to-peer rental model works well when you have high-value assets that aren't being utilized at capacity,” he explained. One of the reasons services like Airbnb and Uber have taken off is because they’ve let normal people make money from their biggest investments — their cars and homes, he said.

more https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/05/06/meet-the-site-that-is-like-uber-but-for-tractors/