He listed his combine on a new sharing website for farm machinery. Within weeks, he had wheat farmers in Colorado and Washington state lined up to lease his combine after he completes his own harvest this June. Uber offers a ride-sharing service and AirBNB gives folks a website to list and find lodging. Now, that same sharing economy mindset has come to the farm.
With those sharing platforms in mind, Kansas City, Missouri-based MachineryLink launched a machinery-sharing website. “Over the past few years, we watched what was going on in sharing in other sectors of the economy and the dramatic impact it had,” said Ben Dye, MachineryLink’s vice president of sales. “We started looking at our customers.” It hasn’t taken long for farmers to sign up - even quicker than Dye and others first envisioned. MachineryLink Sharing, as it is called, already has more than 1,300 growers signed up - those offering to share their equipment as well as those looking for a machine, Dye said. The platform lists “tens of millions of dollars’ worth of equipment,” according to the company, which includes not only combines, but sprayers, tractors, drills and other ag machinery.