Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch A farmer harvests corn near Slater on Oct. 17, 2020.

When something breaks on our farm, my first instinct is the same one my father had, and his father before him: figure out what’s wrong, fix it, and get back to work.

That instinct is bred into Iowa farmers. We are, as Rep. Derek Wulf put it when he introduced House File 2709, “the best problem solvers” this state has. But somewhere along the way, the manufacturers who build our equipment decided that solving our own problems was no longer permitted.

When one of our Iowa Farmers Union members installs a perfectly good replacement part on a modern tractor, the manufacturer’s software can refuse to recognize it. The equipment shuts down and/or indicates error codes in the diagnostic system until a dealer sends out a costly repair technician with proprietary pairing software.

In other words, the farmer has the part. The farmer has the skill. But a software gatekeeper stands between the farmer and the repair.

Last week, the Iowa House Agriculture Committee passed HF 2709 by a vote of 18 to 5. The bill is straightforward. It requires agricultural equipment manufacturers to make documentation, software, firmware, and diagnostic tools available to farmers and independent repair shops at fair and reasonable cost. It does not ask for trade secrets. It does not compromise safety. It simply says that when you buy a piece of equipment, you should be able to maintain it.

The vote was not close, and the support was not partisan. In addition to the Republican ag committee Chairman Wulf’s support, the bill aligns with key components of Iowa House Democrats’ Regaining Iowa Farmers’ Independence plan.

“Iowa farmers are being boxed in by corporate consolidation, unfair practices, and a lack of transparency,” said Rep. J.D. Scholten, ranking member of the House ag committee. “This plan is about restoring balance, protecting independence, and making sure farmers can succeed on their own terms.”

Farmers Union has long been an advocate for the Right to Repair and has been a nationwide leader in farmer fairness issues. Now, the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Soybean Association have both registered for the bill.

Iowa is not alone. In the same week, Oklahoma’s House Agriculture Committee passed its own repair bill with a 5 to 1 bipartisan vote. A federal court has authorized the Federal Trade Commission to proceed to trial against John Deere over its repair restrictions. This is not a regional complaint. It is a national reckoning.

The opponents will tell you the industry’s voluntary “memorandum of understanding” already addresses this issue. It is clear this memorandum doesn’t have real teeth to protect farmers. Three years after it was signed, farmers are still waiting on hold for a dealer technician while crops sit in the field. When your corn is ready to harvest and your combine throws a software code you cannot clear, a memorandum is cold comfort.

In no way is this bill anti-dealer. Our local Iowa equipment dealers are our neighbors. They are caught in the same squeeze we are. Manufacturers restrict what dealers can do, undercompensate them for warranty work, and let farmers direct their frustration at the dealership instead of at the manufacturer. A fair repair law helps dealers, too, by removing the manufacturer chokehold on the service chain and letting dealers compete on what they do best: expertise, relationships, and trust.

Iowa farm income is projected to fall 24% this year, extending a three-year decline. Our farmers cannot afford $150-an-hour service calls for repairs they are perfectly capable of making themselves. They should not have to wait days for a technician when a software lock is the only thing standing between them and a working machine and planted field.

My family has farmed this ground for five generations. We have always fixed what we owned whenever we could. Right to Repair does not create a new right. It restores one that was taken from us. Iowa’s farmers have waited long enough.

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Aaron Lehman is the president of the Iowa Farmers Union. He is a fifth-generation farmer from rural Polk County, where he grows corn, soybeans, oats and hay with his family.