John Deere has agreed to pay $99 million to farmers, including some in Wyoming, to settle a long-running right-to-repair lawsuit over limiting access to diagnostic tools and software needed to repair its equipment.
Right-to-repair has been an emotional rallying cry for U.S. farmers and ranchers who say tractors have become so technologically advanced that they’re nearly impossible to fix themselves.
That means paying for John Deere dealerships to respond when equipment goes down, as well as waiting.
In the settlement announced Monday, John Deere also agrees to share its tools, software, and diagnostic systems with farmers and independent repair shops.
Brad Sage, who spent more than 30 years working for John Deere dealerships, now owns Sage Repair in Florence, Montana, near the Montana-Washington border.
He charges farmers about half the cost for repairs that a John Deere dealership would and said he is “totally” busy.
Sage told Cowboy State Daily he left his post at John Deere because the company became too corporate.
“You don’t need to pay four people to do one job,” he said, adding that equipment repair doesn’t have to be so expensive.
“This settlement addresses the issues raised in the 2022 complaint and brings this case to an end with no finding of wrongdoing,” the company said in a statement.
Right-to-repair advocates say the increasing computerization of agricultural equipment has made fixing equipment almost impossible without going to the manufacturers. That costs farmers time and money they often do not have.
The settlement is not final, said Chad Franke, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. A judge still has to approve it, and that decision is expected later this month.
Meanwhile, John Deere faces a separate right-to-repair lawsuit brought on by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2025 for falling short of the commitment it made to the American Farm Bureau to provide tools, software and documentation for repairs in a timely manner.
The $99 Million Settlement
The class action lawsuit claimed the tractor giant was monopolizing the repair market, while right-to-repairadvocates say farmers should be able to fix tractors themselves or go to an independent repair shop.
Wyoming farmers will “very likely” receive payments from the $99 million settlement, said Franke.
The settlement calls for payments to go to John Deere equipment owners who can prove that sometime since 2018, their equipment was repaired at a John Deere dealership and the repair cost them more than what it would have cost to do it themselves or at an independent repair shop.
“I’ve seen high level details but not in-the-weeds details of how to qualify,” Franke said.
Calls and emails to the Wyoming’s Farm Bureau Federation were not immediately returned.
John Deere admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.
When Farmers Used To Fix Their Own Tractors
Willie Cade, a board member for The Repair Association, which works with farmers unions and others in several states to push right-to-repair legislation, previously told Cowboy State Daily there is a growing nationwide movement for right-to-repair legislation.
His grandfather was the chief engineer for John Deere in 1925.
In 2025, 20 states introduced bills aimed at including agricultural equipment under right-to-repair laws. The bills fell through in Virginia and South Dakota.
Sage said it used to be that the only time a farmer went to the John Deere dealership for a problem was when something very strange, highly technical, or very time-consuming came up.
“That was the scenario before,” Sage said. “Now farmers are locked out (of solving equipment problems) because the information is too hard or cumbersome to come by.”
Fixing your own tractor used to be “almost the default,” said Franke, who lives in Lander but grew up on a farm in Akron, Ohio.
Franke said he recalls only one time his dad took a John Deere tractor into the dealership, and it was for a major engine overhaul.
Used Tractor Market Is Hot
Meanwhile, the market for used tractors continues to grow.
Franke said tractors that predate computer software are selling for what they cost when they were new. To get a completely computer-free tractor, he said, you have to go back to the 1980s.
“We have certainly experienced an uptick of sales in used equipment,” Michael McNamee of McNamee auctions in Torrington has told Cowboy State Daily.
Casper-area farmer Bill Kossert said he avoids the new equipment technology by depending on old tractors. In 2022, he used a 44-year-old tractor to harvest hay.
“It still runs great, and it’s got everything I need,” he said, “including air conditioning in the cab.”
Like Lucy’s Football
Even with a major settlement looming, there’s still an ongoing issue with John Deere, Franke said.
For decades, John Deere has said it supports the right to repair, he said. But farmers continue to run into the same problems — equipment that they can only fix by bringing it to a dealer.
John Deere offers a software package for farm owners and independent repair shops that is supposed to help tractor owners and mechanics at independently owned shops troubleshoot issues on their own.
Sage paid $14,000 for access to the software, called the John Deere Operations Center PRO Service.
It is so-so at best, he said. The program is clunky and has to be updated frequently.
“That’s not acceptable,” he added.
In 2023, John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding with American Farm Bureau promising to provide tools, software and documentation for repairs to equipment owners and independent mechanics in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Yet problems persisted, Franke said.
As part of the current proposed class action settlement, John Deere is promising to support software and owners’ repairs for the next 10 years.
Franke questions why the promise is only for 10 years.
“It’s like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown,” Franke said. “They’re saying, ‘Trust us, we mean it,’ and then again, ‘Trust us, we mean it,’ and then, ‘Trust us, we really mean it this time.’”
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
