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The Final Blog: A story of trust

I’m back in the home office today after an amazing trip abroad with great people. After some reflecting, here’s the final blog: A story of trust.

On the plane ride from Paris to Minneapolis/St. Paul, I was trying to figure out what my last post would be. Putting pen to paper was hard because so much happened in a such a short time, it would be an injustice to describe it in a few paragraphs. Then it hit me, the trip to visit CLAAS facilities demonstrates traceability, but I thought it’s bigger than that.

As consumers push for additional transparency on how, where and when their food was made continues, it’s also the same for farmers. They want to know the products that they are using are maximizing their returns on investments. One thing is abundantly clear, CLAAS wants to be open and transparent about the machines they produce.

When a farmer orders a machine and it’s delivered, the farmer can trace all parts through the supply chain from its origin. It’s down to every bolt, nut and tire. The technology that’s used can show when, where and who along the assembly line put the part into a machine. Think about all of the parts that goes into a harvester or a tractor. That’s a lot of data, but it’s always available. The numerous quality control checks provide oversight and confidence that what’s being delivered to the farm gate is the best possible machine that could be made. The R and D is always improving, always trying to make machines more efficient.

That process should breed trust among farmers in an era where trust in the farming community could be eroding away from outside pressures: weather, policy and, in some instances, consumers. I will admit, I haven’t been in any other production facility before so I can only provide this perspective, but it’s worth sharing.

As the next harvester and tractor roll of the assembly line thousands of miles away, farmers can be assured that what they’re getting was bounded by trust.