As much as 40 percent of a farmer’s total crop production expenses can be tied up in equipment. With that in mind, SoyGrowers.com, a service of the American Soybean Association (ASA), has joined with MachineryLink to help growers reduce that production cost.

By signing on to www.SoyGrowers.com and using MachineryLink, farmers will be able to share, lease, sell or purchase equipment in ways that will help them make more efficient use of their equipment dollars. For example, the Innovation Managed Lease Program allows growers to utilize the newest, most efficient, name-brand combines for a fraction of the cost of full ownership or traditional leases. The Innovation Fractional Ownership Program provides similar benefits for those preferring to retain some ownership.

“Growers from Montana to Oklahoma have been participating in the Innovation Programs and tell us these programs are far better than having expensive equipment sit idle for 10 months while finance, storage and insurance costs continue,” said David Forsee, President of MachineryLink.

ASA President Bart Ruth of Rising City, NE, called the new alliance “a wonderful way to give farmers the opportunity to be more profitable in one expense area where they can make an impact on their bottom line while gaining efficiency.”

A typical Innovation Program scenario includes the sharing of one combine by multiple growers on either a lease basis or through fractional ownership similar to the way corporate jets are shared. The combine might start with a grower in Oklahoma who harvests winter wheat, then moves to a North Dakota grower and finally moves to Iowa where a farmer harvests soybeans in the fall.

MachineryLink, based in Kansas City, was started by Kansas farmer Dave Govert who set out to create a better ag machinery resource that would help growers reduce their total annual production costs. In addition to the Innovation Equipment Programs, MachineryLink offers an online Marketplace with more than 11,000 pieces of used ag equipment for sale, a Resource Center that includes tractor pricing guidelines, as well as other equipment resources for farmers.

In addition to MachineryLink, SoyGrowers.com also offers a service called, “Crop and Yield Planner,” to help growers increase profitability. The service provides highly-accurate satellite-based projections of soybean, corn, and winter wheat yields a month prior to U.S. Department of Agriculture projections and projects growing season conditions and planting times several months ahead of the season.