As Canada’s farmers keep an eye on market impacts due to trade uncertainty, they’re also facing issues surrounding the equipment they use every day with U.S. duties raising the costs for not only tractors and cultivators, but also the parts needed to keep them working.
Though the broad U.S. tariffs imposed on numerous countries on April 2 did not include Canada, it still faces duties on steel, aluminum and the automobile industry.
Those tariffs on steel and aluminum are creating a bottleneck for many farmers.
“The tariffs that have been imposed on the steel and aluminum industry, in particular, have obviously increased the cost of equipment overall, including the parts to repair equipment that farmers currently own,” said Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
“So there’s a lot of uneasiness out there when you look at the increased cost of borrowing these days. Many of our purchases are financed, so that cost has gone up because of interest increases, but also certainly availability of parts.”
Currie’s not alone in his concerns.
Canada’s farmers have expressed unease over the impact of tariffs on their equipment since at least April, with some at the time saying they were unclear whether such equipment was subject to the duties or Canada’s retaliatory tariffs.
Months later, manufacturers are feeling the pressure.
Last month, John Deere — a major maker of farm equipment for both sides of the border — reported a third-quarter drop in profit and warned of a bigger tariff hit than previously expected.
The company now expects a pre-tax tariff impact of nearly US$600 million for the year, compared with the $500 million projected last quarter.
“Tariff uncertainty and deflated commodity prices have made farmers increasingly cautious in spending decisions and more hesitant to accept higher machinery prices,” said CFRA research analyst Jonathan Sakraida.
The levies cost the company nearly $200 million in the third quarter.
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Cost increases like that have an impact for many, both the suppliers and the farmers who use the equipment, and with some combines costing more than $800,000, Currie said many are pausing before they invest.
“The cost of doing business has got more expensive,” he said. “At this point in time, farmers are very nervous about, ‘Do I look at making that purchase now? Do I wait and see if prices stabilize or come down?’
“And if machinery is not available, because there was some manufacturers in the U.S. that said that they were going to stop shipping outside the U.S. for a time frame, that might have changed plans for farmers, their business plans on when to buy, what to buy.”
He added potential delays on when and what to buy has a ripple effect on the wider supply chain, such as those that sell and fix the equipment.
Austin Hall, dealer principal at Tractorland Calgary, said they’re noticing a shift.
“We have seen a downturn in our business this year, but we’ve also seen the resilience of the agriculture communities,” he told Global News.
Hall said to combat this, the industry has been relying on each other.
He said they’ve had machines go “back and forth” across the country because, in some cases, taking on a bill to ship the vehicle from one place to another is better than “hitting an end user with a tariff bill.”
Manufacturers are also trying to absorb costs where they can, though Hall noted the cost of parts have gone up about five per cent, prompting him to take parts from brand new machines to use on other equipment to help customers.
It’s why Hall said he’s hopeful some amount of certainty will come soon.
“If we had another year of some of the same challenges, it would greatly affect us on a financial level,” Hall said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday about trade and other topics, and that a senior team was in Washington, D.C. speaking with administration officials about sector-specific tariffs.
But the prime minister also cautioned there would be no immediate “white smoke” on those sectors.
However, Currie said he’s hopeful there could be a turnaround.
“So while we haven’t seen the full impact of it (tariffs) yet, as we’re waiting to see what that might look like. Depending on how the conversations between Prime Minister Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump turn out, this may all come to rest and not be a huge impact,” he said.
—with files from Global News’ Skylar Peters
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
