Decided to post this because of the effects of DRM.
John Deere wouldn't be now so hard pressed to accept the strikers demands if they didn't had put themselves in the bad situation that only the official parts can be used to fix the tractors.
Haven't spoken to the farmers, but I know there's a number of fields around me that are still full of soybeans shockingly late. The cotton is just now coming in too which is not farmer owned hardware, usually. We've seen old gear making rectangular "truckload" bales instead of the round ones, for the first time in ~20yr.
Luckily it has been unusually mild and dry this fall so there's not a lot of loss yet so far.
My gut feelings as an interested but detached observer are that it's been a good year for yields, too. I'd also say we've got a lot of "new" fields producing in the last 3 years which had been fallow for a decade before that. In addition, we've got winter wheat happening far more than we used to; so some of the soybeans might be green manure to be plowed in instead of harvested.
Corn all came out beginning of august, the volunteer stalks on those fields were back up to 3ft high before the freeze the other night.
I am also an interested but detached observer. Nice description.
The why's surrounding what you are seeing is unknown (to you), but I'd guess that a combination of prices and growing season changes due to climate change. Who knows how long it will be favorable, but if you can take advantage of it, you should do so while it lasts.
John Deere wouldn't be now so hard pressed to accept the strikers demands if they didn't had put themselves in the bad situation that only the official parts can be used to fix the tractors.