About Us

Chip Davis, owner and founder of Farmers Auction and Equipment Company, has a long history of being an actual production agriculture farmer as well as owning a very successful dirt work contracting business.  His life has been spent with the need to buy and sell equipment for those businesses, from the business owner’s perspective, for the last 4 decades!  The historical options of securing and liquidating equipment always left something to be desired.  Chip used auction companies, direct marketing, OEM dealers, trades, and other methods of both buying and selling equipment over his professional career, and there was always one prevalent theme with all of that.  No one was ever available to help him address his needs, to help solve his problems, to understand what he needed!  Sure, there were plenty of folks that would sell him a tractor or that would offer a low ball price for a bulldozer he was selling, but their own personal needs (yes, their commission check) were more important it seemed than the needs of Chip, the business owner.  Over the years this common theme remained constant, and Chip had the thought that there had to be a better way, and the idea of Farmers Auctions and Equipment Company was born! 

After graduating from Auction School and working for a year in the industry with some really great mentors, the missing pieces of the puzzle began to take place.  To be successful in business, even to be successful in life, the answer is in the giving, not in the receiving!  The answer is in helping customers and others to solve the problems that they are facing.  Sure, everyone has to make some money to survive, but the real answer is to help answer the problems and concerns of our clients.  Over and over we hear “This is such a refreshing way to do business” or “Finally, someone that sees and understands what I need”.  At Farmers Auctions and Equipment, we have been in your shoes.  We have owned the equipment that we just did not use any longer that we should have sold years ago.  We have experienced short years where we had an immediate need to raise revenue and raise it fast.  We have seen the times that it made more sense to sell an older piece of equipment and replace it with a newer piece that did not have all the repairs.  We have been intimidated by the forceful and sometimes abusive tactics of the auction companies and sales forces.  We have been there and experienced that and we can offer solutions to you that are tailored to your needs and your goals.  We are not in business simply to sell your equipment and make a quick buck, but rather we are here to find the best solutions to the issues that you have, help you look at not only the issues that you are currently facing but also to help you position for success in the future, and to do good, honest, wholesome business that is best for you, not some other company.  This is evidenced by the fact that almost every one of our customers are repeat customers.  They keep coming back on deal after deal because they get personal service when selling or buying equipment, and their success is goal number one of Farmers Auctions and Equipment Company!! 

We have learned the value of working with others to help our customers achieve their success.  One such example is moving the right equipment into the right places.  For example, due to dealer presence or parts availability, some equipment is more valuable in certain parts of the country than it is in others.  When we see that a customer has a piece that they want to sell, but the close proximity value is less than what it is in other parts of the country, we market that piece to sell “where it belongs”.  In some instances, we have seen a 3x increase in selling price simply by placing certain brands of equipment where they are popular and where they bring the most returns.  Some equipment is used in some places and there is almost no similar equipment in others.   The southern United States is cotton country, but it is difficult to sell a cotton picker in Iowa, for example.  We work strategically with a select few equipment brokers in different parts of the nation for this very reason.  When we market a specialty piece of equipment that you might have, we are quick to call in the experts in that specialty and allow them to help us help you to find buyers (or sellers) for that equipment in the areas where it is more readily demanded. 

Working with these other brokers also allows us to broaden the market for your equipment.  Many times one of our customers might be looking for a specific piece of equipment that we do not currently have in inventory.  Because we have and work with this network of brokers, in most instances we are capable of finding that piece that our customer is seeking.  This works in reverse as well.  If you have a piece of equipment that you are selling, it could be in much higher demand in other areas than it is here, and when this is the case we are quick to work with our partners and market your equipment where it will bring the highest return. 

Another way we help our customers is on “trades”.  Historically, local dealers would offer fair deals to trade used equipment on later model or even new equipment.  It seems increasingly more evident now, however, that the OEM dealers across the board are offering 40-60% of wholesale value for your trades, depending on the equipment, thus not only making a huge profit on the new equipment they are selling you, but also on the trade that you are selling them!  A solution to this problem is to market your “trades” through a professional company like Farmers Auctions and Equipment Company for closer to retail price, thus vastly increasing your equity in the overall transaction! 

We also help our customer to free up their time spent searching for and / or marketing their equipment.  The process takes time, advertising, inputs, sustained persistence, knowledge, and experience to work to its fullest level.    Because our passion is finding and marketing equipment and taking care of our customer’s needs, we handle the task and all of the details for you, and your time is better spent operating the business that you are the expert on! 

Finally, an additional way that we help our customers is to offer services that sometimes are difficult for our clients to do themselves.  We have established relationships with several equipment finance companies and if we have a potential buyer for your equipment that may need a little help securing the financing, we can put them in touch with one of our partner financing companies and in most cases arrange for them to be quickly approved for a loan.  Similarly, transporting equipment is many times a concern.  We deal with several shipping companies that are all insured and bonded and have professional experience in moving your equipment to where it belongs, and we can schedule and arrange all transportation concerns so you don’t have to.  One of the most important services that is integral and key to our business is to properly assess the value of a piece of equipment, regardless of whether you are a buyer or a seller.  We have extensive first-hand experience in equipment values, but we go a step further.  We are also Certified Equipment Appraisers, capable of producing certified USPAP appraisals with comps to make sure that you know and understand the current market value of what you are buying or selling. 

As you can see, Farmers Auctions and Equipment Company is a different type of equipment company.  We have YOUR interests first!  From our personal experiences, this is what we found to be missing with most of the other sources of buying or selling equipment, and we have addressed those concerns and now offer you a better way to buy and sell equipment, with the “Farmers” interest being the priority!  Let Farmers Auctions and Equipment Company help you with all of your equipment needs!