Bobby Martens, associate professor, was quoted in a Nov. 21 Gazette article, "Farmers caught in supply chain pinch, too."
Hart and another ISU expert, economist Bobby Martens, an expert in supply chain management, said the shipping backlog could contribute to higher prices for farm equipment because of an increased cost of shipping the parts for things like tractors and combines.
“That one is tougher because that one has longer lead times. You’re competing against others for the (computer) chips that go into it, and many of those parts and components — maybe not the end tractor itself — but many of the parts and components could be sitting on those ships off of (Los Angeles) and Long Beach, those backups that we’re seeing,” Martens said recently on the Iowa Farm Bureau’s The Spokesman Speaks podcast. “And there could be input challenges to being able to even produce some of those products.”