Track sales now about 35%: Ag Spray’s Dave Staack

Feb 13, 2016

Farm Show Snapshot

By Farms.com Media Team

The booth was busy all week, but Dave Staack, vice-president of Ag Sales at Ag Spray Equipment, took time to offer a quick business update to Farms.com at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

“It’s a buyer’s market right now,” Staack reported. “Until commodity prices do something, that will continue. Farmers are cautious at this year’s show, and they are taking their time.”

Staack, based in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, reported a lot of interest in the new track option for Ag Spray’s LA9000 liquid applicator.

“Tracks have become more popular as farmers continue to address soil compaction.

Equipment is getting larger. Compaction is a reality. And farmers are dealing with it, because it does affect their yield at the end of the year.”

Staack stood in front of a unit with a 55-foot toolbar, with 24-row, 30-inch spacing, and observed that “it used to be that a 1,000-gallon unit was large. But now we are pushing 2,000 gallons.

“There is a lot of added weight out in the fields now.”

Tires are still popular, representing about 65 per cent of sales, according to Staack.

“But as units continue to get bigger, that 65-35 ratio will shift the other way.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.