John Deere Sales in Napoleon Strong - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

A few good years in farming has machinery sales soaring.

Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin takes you to Green Iron Equipment in Napoleon where John Deere paint is rolling on and off the lot.

There's only word to describe the day to day activities in this John Deere shop.

(Chris Weigel / Store Manager) "It's just busy, busy every year. Everyday is getting busier." 

Chris Weigel is the store manager at Green Iron Equipment in Napoleon.

It's to the point that what you see you can't get.

(Chris Weigel / Store Manager) "Combines, we are completely sold out for next year. If someone came in and wanted a new combine for 2013, we couldn't buy em. they are sold out. 4 wheel drives you would get it in June or July. So you wouldn't get it for seeding time. Air seeders they sell out by July 31st. You can't buy a new John Deere air seeder after July 31st, they are sold out. So we always have to plan a year a head of time."

(Chris Weigel / Store Manager) "Would you say this past year has been the best year for business? Yes. by far. This year we almost doubled over one year ago just because of the amount of service work coming in, the amount of parts going out. It was a great year." 

Weigel credits "their" good years to the recent profitable years in farming, more customers and farmers needing to grow with the times.

(Chris Weigel / Store Manager) "Everybody is getting bigger. thousand acres is no longer a farm anymore. Now it's tens of thousands."

(John Wishek / Farm Credit Services, Wishek) "The size of the loans is what has really increased the most. I have worked in Wishek for 25 years and in that time we have probably come close to quadrupling the size of our office and most of that has been in the last 8-10 years. Most of that really isn't from increased borrower base it's from increased loans. 

The push to buy is also increasing the push to hire.

(Sarah Gustin / sgustin@kxnet.com) "Since April Green Iron Equipment here in Napoleon has added an additional 6 employees and they are looking to add 5 more all within the service area." 

(Chris Weigel / Store Manager) "We can't find the help we have been advertising for 6 months." 

The Napoleon Store has 21 employees.

Weigel hopes that number climbs to 26 within the next month or two.

Weigel says Green Iron added a 90x150 addition to the service shop a yr and a half ago. 

He says they are now looking to add an another addition this spring.