Colorado Approves Right-to-Repair Law So Farmers Can Fix Their Own Equipment

A Deere & Co. autonomous tractor at Jensen Test Farm in Bondurant, Iowa, on April 28, 2022. Bianca Flowers/Reuters

Colorado farmers will be able to legally fix their own equipment next year, with manufacturers including Deere & Co. obliged to provide them with manuals for diagnostic software and other aids, under a measure passed by legislators in the first U.S. state to approve such a law.

The Consumer Right to Repair Agricultural Equipment bill was approved on April 11. Failure to comply with the law will be considered a deceptive trade practice, the bill states (pdf).

Gov. Jared Polis is expected to sign the bill, a spokesperson said.

Once the law is enacted, agricultural equipment manufacturers like Deere & Co. will be required to provide parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, and other documentation to Colorado farmers who own equipment manufactured by the company, the bill states.

An American flag waves in the wind at the edge of a farm outside of Walsh, Colorado, on Dec. 6, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Kevin O'Reilly, director of the right-to-repair campaign for Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), said farmers having the freedom to fix their own farming equipment is a huge accomplishment.

“For farmers, simply getting access to all the tools needed to fix their tractors has been a tough row to hoe. That makes this historic victory sweeter than summer corn,” O’Reilly said in a statement. 

Farmers have battled with equipment manufacturers who would only authorize repairs at dealer locations and would have to negotiate repair costs and wait times.

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

Farmers to Have More Control

Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Organization, said the Colorado bill will allow farmers to control their own equipment and will increase productivity and food production.

“Everyone who eats will benefit from this law,” Gordon-Byrne said in the PIRG announcement. “Farmers will have more timely options for repair, which will make it easier to use high-tech products which, in turn, enable more productive farms.”

The agricultural industry and farmers would be updated with the latest technology to maintain their farming equipment with modern farming tools.

“It will also help align the industry of agriculture with other products using technology-enabled products such as motor vehicles, trucks, wheelchairs, and cell phones. We should all be able to fix everything, everywhere, all the time,” Gordon-Byrne said.

Manufacturers would be able to provide important information about their products without giving away trade secrets.

“Need not divulge any trade secrets to independent repair providers and owners,” the bill states relating to manufacturers’ confidential information.

Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, also praised the legislation.

“Electronics have been a blessing and a curse for farmers. The benefits of precision agriculture have come with software shackles that took away agency and local independence, imperiling 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,” Wiens said in the PIRG statement.

Democrat state Rep. Brianna Titone, who sponsored the legislation, predicts that other states will follow Colorado’s new farming law.

“If there are no lawsuits or collapse of the industry, it demonstrates that the law is not going to cause chaos like many opponents think it will,” Titone said.

Once signed by the governor, the law will take effect Jan. 1, 2024.

Reuters contributed to this report.