Sitting in front of a hulking red tractor, Democratic Governor Jared Polis on Tuesday signed a bill making Colorado the first state to ensure farmers can fix their own tractors and combines with a “right to repair” law, which compels manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software.
Colorado, home to high desert ranches and sweeping farms on the low and level plains, took the lead on the issue following a nationwide outcry from farmers that manufacturers were blocking them from making repairs and forcing them to wait precious days for an official servicer to arrive — delays that imperiled profits.
While their increasingly high-tech tractors or combines sit impotent, a hailstorm could decimate a crop or a farmer could miss the ideal planting window, farmers said.
Photo: Reuters
“Farmers have had to wait three or four weeks to get repairs done to equipment when they can do repairs themselves. That’s just unfathomable,” said Bill Midcap, whose son is a fifth-generation rancher on Colorado’s eastern plains.
Lawmakers in at least 10 other states have introduced similar legislation.
Colorado has taken the lead, but Democratic Representative Brianna Titone, the bill’s sponsor, and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union director Dan Waldvogle said that it is a potential launchpad for other states, and even at the federal level where discussions about similar legislation are already under way.
The legislation advanced through long committee hearings, having been propelled forward mostly by Democrats, even though a Republican lawmaker cosponsored the bill. The proposal left some Republican lawmakers stuck between their farming constituents pleading for the ability to repair their equipment and manufacturers who opposed it.
Manufacturers and dealerships raised concerns that providing tools and information to farmers would allow equipment owners to illegally crank up the horsepower and bypass emissions controls, putting operator safety and the environment at risk.
Opponents are also worried that compelling companies to share more detailed information necessary for repairs could expose proprietary information.
“Forcing a business to disclose trade secrets, software and jeopardize consumer safety is poor public policy,” said Colorado state Representative Matt Soper, a Republican.
It would also stifle tech innovation, he added.
Manufacturer John Deere did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the signing ceremony on Tuesday afternoon, Polis said: “This bill will save farmers and ranchers time and money, and support the free market in repair,” before exclaiming: “First in the nation.”
Behind the governor and arrayed farmers and lawmakers sat a red Steiger 370 tractor owned by a farmer named Danny Wood. Wood’s tractor flies a US flag reading “Farmers First,” and was one of two of his machines to break down, requiring long waits before servicers arrived to enter a few lines of computer code or make a fix Wood could have made himself.
Polis and Titone climbed inside the tractor for a photograph as the ceremony ended.
The bill’s proponents admit that the legislation could make it easier for operators to modify horsepower and emissions controls, but they said that farmers are already able to tinker with their machines, and doing so would remain illegal.
The law falls into the broader “right to repair” campaign, which has picked up steam across the country and applies to a range of products, from iPhones to hospital ventilators. Independent mechanics and vehicle owners have access to tools and parts because of a 2014 memorandum of understanding signed by the automotive industry.
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