John Deere and CNH's software-locked repair monopoly costs farmers $3,348/year in downtime and forces reliance on dealer networks during time-critical field operations

John Deere and CNH Industrial control nearly 90% of the U.S. large tractor and combine market and restrict access to diagnostic software, repair tools, and technical manuals to their authorized dealer networks. Farmers cannot perform many repairs themselves because the equipment's electronic control units require proprietary software to clear fault codes, recalibrate systems after part replacement, or even complete basic maintenance. So what? When a combine breaks down during a 10-day soybean harvest window, the farmer must wait for a dealer technician, who may be 50-100 miles away and booked solid with other harvest-season breakdowns. So what? Average wait times of 3-7 days during peak season mean crops standing in the field are exposed to weather damage, pod shatter, and quality degradation, with each day of delay on a 1,500-acre soybean operation costing $5,000-15,000 in yield and quality losses. So what? Farmers and independent mechanics who could fix the mechanical issue in hours are blocked by software locks that serve no safety purpose, only dealer revenue protection. So what? Deere and its dealers make 3-6x more profit from parts and repairs than from selling new machinery, creating a business model where equipment complexity and repair difficulty are profit centers, not engineering necessities. So what? This extracts wealth from rural communities and transfers it to corporate shareholders, as every dollar spent on inflated dealer repair costs is a dollar not spent at local businesses, on farm improvements, or on family livelihoods. The problem persists because equipment purchase contracts include end-user license agreements that prohibit reverse-engineering or circumventing software locks, the two dominant manufacturers face no competitive pressure to open their platforms, and until the FTC lawsuit filed in January 2025 and state right-to-repair laws like Colorado's, there was no legal framework to compel access.