Planting the Seed to Reduce Downtime

Unplanned downtime is an enemy in any industry. Most people associate the term with manufacturing, where a breakdown in machinery can lead to significant financial losses. The average cost of downtime across all businesses was $260,000 per hour in 2016, while downtime in the auto industry can cost $3 million per hour. Downtime in the agriculture industry is harder to pinpoint. Untilled fields and unharvested crops reduce income, and it can frequently take days to repair equipment. In any business, time is money, and farmers who can’t plant and harvest their crops due to machine downtime are taking a financial hit. It is harder to get a precise figure on agriculture downtime, but downtime expenses are expensive and difficult to recoup.