Good rain and government tax incentives have seen agricultural machinery sales kick significantly this month, however in a global manufacturing environment supply chain issues could still hamper Australian access to equipment and parts over the next six months.
AGCO Australia, New Zealand and Far East vice president and managing director Warwick McCormick said the fall-out from COVID-19 had placed some limits on the global brand house's ability to keep up supply of its machinery in the short-term.
"The big question we have right now is manufacturing, most of our manufacturing operations are in Europe," he said.
"This includes the big Massey tractors, Fendt and a lot of hay tools - such as round balers and our combines."
Mr McCormick said while the company's two plants in China were ramping up, the major issue the company faced was the supply base.
"We can build the tractor, but if we can't get the glass for the cab or the alternator, that is when it is going to get tough," he said.
Mr McCormick said while current stocks in Australia were reasonable, and significant numbers of machines were still available, the company was planning for slow-downs from key suppliers.
"Some suppliers are in northern Italy, so we are trying to second guess and carry out scenario planning on how that will affect us," he said.
Strategies such as shifting production timing, by opening during the scheduled factory shutdown later in the year, is one of the options Mr McCormick said he was exploring to catch up production.
"We will loose two weeks of production now, but catch it up in August," he said.
However Mr McCormick said Australian supplies would depended on the length of shut-downs in key supplier countries.
"If they extend till June then we will run out of machines, and that will be the same for other companies," he said.
"But the seasonal timing of this isn't too bad right now, if the back of this gets broken in the next four weeks, we won't be too bad in Australia from a supply perspective."
Mr McCormick said while manufacturing of AGCO machinery parts remained stable, however access could be slowed due to a lack of air freight.
"Our big parts' warehouses are in the US and the east of France, are running well at the moment, but the problem is the amount of aircraft coming out," he said.
"So while we can supply the parts, the problem is getting them here.
"Internally, in Australia, freight has not been an issue."
Mr McCormick said he felt Australia had struck a good balance between measures to slow the curve and maintaining critical business.
"Talking to our dealers in New Zealand, it is killing business over there," he said.
"They want people to continue primary industries but you need a permit before you can supply spare parts.
"Australia has a nice balance."
Mr McCormick said within Australia AGCO had initiated measures to protect staff and suppliers, including no-contact deliveries, social distancing measures and personal protective equipment.
"Out of 22,000 employees globally we have only had 11 people test positive," he said.
Mr McCormick said within Australia the company had seen an increase in demand off the back of the Federal Government's instant asset write-off stimulus.