Had a chat this morning with a fellow from a governmental lending agency who wanted to know if I’d like to be their go-to equipment appraiser for agricultural equipment in California — from the Mexican border up to the edge of Oregon. Would I? Yessir, I believe I would. Thanks for asking!
I’ve written before about how much I enjoy appraising agricultural equipment and working with farmers. But have I mentioned that as a kid, I wanted to be a county farm agent? Yep. I started my college career as an ag major at a small agricultural college, only to discover that in classes full of farm kids, I was behind before I’d even started. Sure my grandparents owned a dairy farm, but most of my memories were of riding on the tractor as a little kid with my grandfather and doing farm chores during summer visits in high school. I didn’t have the bone-deep knowledge of soils and crops that the bonafide farm-raised kids did.
Instead, I turned to accounting, never once thinking that there might be a backdoor to the future I’d imagined, walking the fields with the farmers, looking over the equipment and listening to their histories and plans. Turns out, that kind of work comes fairly often to an equipment appraiser in California. I’ve already appraised a wide variety of ag equipment in many of California’s big agricultural centers and it looks like plenty more on the horizon.
One thing I really like about this new agricultural equipment appraising commitment is that most of the equipment appraisals will be for equipment on the way up, as we like to say. We’ll be doing equipment appraisals for folks who are expanding their operations, investing in new equipment, or using the collateral lending process to otherwise advance their agricultural goals.
When you do as much agricultural equipment appraising as I do, it’s inevitable that some appraisals are for downturning situations such as bankruptcy or equipment damage. And of course many appraisals — such as those for partnership changes, divorce, or death — are neither upturning or downturning in value. While we’re always glad to be of service for whatever reason for an equipment appraisal, it’s a great feeling to be able to provide an equipment appraisal that might help someone’s dream come true.
The truth is, though, that the appraiser never really knows how an equipment appraisal situation is going to turn out. Sometimes what looks like the end of a dream turns out to be something a little different. Recently, for example, we did an agricultural equipment appraisal for a little family farm on leased land down in the Santa Cruz area. During the initial phone consultation, and even at the inspection, it seemed like a sad story. Prices were down, costs were up. They’d decided it was time to get out of farming before they lost everything. They were nice folks, cheerful and practical, and concerned about letting their farm crew go, most of whom had been with them for decades. And their equipment had been lovingly maintained in almost unbelievably excellent condition.
A few weeks after we’d submitted the equipment appraisal report, we got a call from the fellow who’d hired us. He wanted to let us know that they’d sold all the equipment, in one lot, to a local farmer who was planning to grow organic brussels sprouts on the property. Not only had he paid almost exactly what we’d reported as our opinion of value, he decided to keep on all the hired help, along with any family members who wanted to help manage the new operation, including the fellow’s son, who had been maintaining the equipment. What seemed to be a sad story turned out to have an unexpectedly happy ending, sorta like a wanna-be county extension agent who ended up valuing ag equipment.
Jack Young, ASA, CPA
California Ag Equipment Appraiser
NorCal Valuation Inc.
