YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

Agricultural Right to Repair Act introduced

By Gary Joiner
Publisher

The issue of farmers and ranchers being able to repair their own equipment is a hot topic of conversation. There’s now a bill in the U.S. Senate tackling the issue.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a farmer, introduced the Agricultural Right to Repair Act.

The bill requires farm equipment manufacturers to provide diagnostic equipment to farmers and ranchers to make repairs possible, and the Federal Trade Commission would have authority to go after companies that don’t.

It’s all designed to give farmers, ranchers and independent repair shops the parts, tools and software necessary to repair their equipment. The bill provides means for disabling and re-enabling an electronic security lock or other security-related functions to effect diagnostics, repair or maintenance.

Current repair restrictions allow the manufacturers to determine who does the repair, when and for how much.

Tester says he wants to finally guarantee farmers and ranchers the right to repair their own equipment and end current restrictions on the repair market.

The bill now awaits consideration in the U.S. Senate.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

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