Senate Looking At Legislation To Replace Equipment Faster

A bipartisan Senate bill would help farmers replace worn equipment faster and encourage new job-creating purchases.  Senate Agriculture Chair Pat Roberts and Ag Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Jon Tester want a five-year depreciation schedule instead of the current seven years for certain ag equipment.  The idea is to help farmers replace worn-out machinery faster with new job-creating equipment purchases.  American Farm Bureau has pressed for same-year business expensing and so-called, ‘like-kind’ expensing to replace worn equipment.

“I’d prefer five, to seven," said AFBF senior economist Bob Young. "If I could get one, I’d take one.  I want that number to be as small as I can get it to be.”

The FSA says farmers and ranchers on average, finance farm equipment for five-years.  Young says the quicker producers can turn around farm equipment, the quicker they can put more modern machines into service.

“That technology is coming on board really quickly whether it be precision agriculture whether it be the way we’re able to put seeds in the ground whether it be the way the sprayer happens to work.”

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