ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER INDUSTRY NEWS He had a book titled “Auction Price Book,” written three years earlier by a banker from Morris, Minnesota, featuring auction prices on farm machinery. At that time, banks needed cash valuations for loans, and as a dealer, Peterson’s father valued the book not just for the prices it provided but to know more about what was on the market. Peterson’s life was about to change—dramatically. As he glanced through the book, he realized that as an accountant, he could transform his love and skill with numbers into a business opportunity. “I knew I liked numbers, and my Dad said, ‘This is good info, and I think there’s something here,’” says Peterson, better known now as ‘Machinery Pete.’ “Whenever I talk to young people, I tell them, ‘Listen to your folks, listen to your grandparents, because they’ve been through things.’” Peterson was the keynote speaker at day two of the 2025 Southwest Agricultural Conference and offered a retrospective of his career and his outlook on used equipment sales and the factors affecting their rise and fall. He credited his father with giving him the Auction Price Book Ralph Pearce The used equipment marketplace Machinery Pete’s perspective on auction prices In 1989, Greg Peterson was trying to determine a direction in life. A recent college graduate and newlywed, he was looking for a job in Rochester, Minnesota, when he received a call from his father, a third-generation John Deere dealer across the state in Benson. “At the 2024 Commodity Classic, the newest Deere tractor went for $1.2 million. Equipment has increased in size and price.
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