Colorado bill would help farmers seek affordable, independent equipment repairs

A first-of-its-kind bill that would grant farmers access to affordable equipment repairs passed in Colorado’s State Legislature on Tuesday and will now head to the governor’s desk.

If signed by Gov. Jared Polis (D) into law, the Consumer Right to Repair Agricultural Equipment Act, HB23-1011,  would require manufacturers to provide parts, embedded software, firmware, tools and other documentation to independent repair providers and farm equipment owners.

These capabilities, according to the bill’s text, would allow repair facilities and owners to conduct diagnostic, maintenance and restoration services.

“For farmers, simply getting access to all the tools needed to fix their tractors has been a tough row to hoe,” Kevin O’Reilly, director of the Right to Repair Campaign at the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, said in a statement.

“That makes this historic victory sweeter than summer corn,” added O’Reilly, whose campaign was involved with drafting the bill’s text.

The bipartisan legislation would take effect beginning Jan. 1, 2024, and would fold agricultural equipment into existing consumer right-to-repair statutes, per the bill.

While a manufacturer’s failure to comply with the requirements would be considered “deceptive trade practice,” the bill stresses that they “need not divulge any trade secrets to independent repair providers and owners.”

Meanwhile, repair providers and owners would not be authorized to make modifications to agricultural equipment that permanently interfere with safety notification systems or render equipment noncompliant with safety or emissions laws, according to the legislation.

“With this bill, Colorado legislators are giving farmers the repair relief they deserve,” O’Reilly said. “But farmers across the country should know: This is just the start.”

Ahead of the legislation’s passage on Tuesday, O’Reilly and his colleagues released an “Out to Pasture” report, which estimated that the U.S. loses $3 billion to tractor downtime and pays an additional $1.2 billion in excess repair costs each year.

Modern farming equipment is often engineered to limit repair choices, meaning that farmers and mechanics cannot access the software they need to troubleshoot tractors, the authors explained.

“Too many farmers have told me that not being able to fix their own equipment can cost them their crop and their livelihood,” O’Reilly said in a separate statement released with the report.

“The answer to this problem is simple: Let farmers fix their stuff,” he added.

Kyle Weins, CEO of how-to site iFixit, described electronics on Tuesday as “a blessing and a curse for farmers,” noting that precision agriculture can be subject to “software shackles” that imperil the future of family farms.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way, and this law goes a long way towards making ownership work the way we all expect,” Weins added.