Farmers are some of the best investors on earth. Every season, you’re making decisions under pressure, with tight windows, and real risk. But too often, farm decisions are framed as costs rather than investments, repairs, maintenance, and, especially, harvest parts. If we want to run a farm like the business it is, we have to ask one simple question:
What’s my return on investment (ROI)?
A QUICK PERSONAL STORY THAT CHANGED MY PERSPECTIVE
A couple of weeks ago, I got my investment statement in the mail. I opened it, skimmed the numbers, and one line jumped out: Average return: 12% over the last period. And I thought, nice. Twelve percent is considered a good investment.
But right after that, I caught myself thinking if I’m happy with a 12% return in the stock market, where I don’t control the weather, the timing, or the outcome, what kind of return are farmers getting when they invest in their combines? Because farmers don’t invest for fun. They invest because it makes harvest more profitable, more reliable, and more manageable. So, here’s the real question:
What’s the return when a farmer invests in Sunnybrook?
COST VS. INVESTMENT (IT’S A MINDSET SHIFT)
A cost disappears. An investment keeps paying you back. Maintenance is a perfect example: money spent up front saves more money later through fewer breakdowns and longer equipment life. Harvest upgrades work the same way. If a part reduces fuel burn, saves time, protects the machine, and captures more grain, it isn’t an expense. It’s a harvest investment.
What 10–40% Less Engine Load Means on the Farm
When Sunnybrook components let a combine run with 10% to 40% less engine load, that’s not just “nice performance.” Now that’s ROI!!
Lower engine load means:
- Less fuel used per acre
- Less strain and wear on the machine
- More capacity to handle tough crops and hard conditions
- Fewer hot, frustrating harvest slowdowns
In other words, your combine works easier, and your farm makes more. The return doesn’t come from a single feature. It stacks, and that’s why payback happens fast.
Sunnybrook delivers ROI through:
- Cleaner sample – Cleaner grain protects your price at the elevator. Less dockage, less penalty, more confidence.
- Less rotor loss – Grain out the back is money on the ground. Capturing even a small percentage more adds up fast across a full harvest.
- Less time changing concaves – Every changeover costs your most valuable harvest asset: time. Fewer swaps means more acres in the best conditions.
- Faster ground speed – Even 0.5 mph faster compounds into real acres per day , and more control over your harvest window.
- No plugging – Smooth flow means fewer stops, fewer headaches, and less wasted fuel and daylight.
A PRACTICAL PAYBACK EXAMPLE
Let’s keep it real. Even on 3,500 acres, those gains stack into a return that can pay the investment back in as little as one season:
- Fuel savings
- Time savings
- More grain in the tank
- Better grain quality
- Fewer breakdown risks
- Faster harvest completion
Year one: you get your money back. Every year after, you’re ahead. That’s ROI in its purest form.
WHY A 46-YEAR BRAND MATTERS IN ROI
There’s a part of ROI that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet: trust. Sunnybrook has been designing harvest components for 46 years. We’ve invested decades of quality, innovation, and grit into solving the same harvest problems farmers face every fall. Why?
Because we’re farmers too. We build parts to last like we want them to last, and to perform like we need them to. When you invest in Sunnybrook, you’re not just buying steel. You’re buying 46 years of learned improvement, designed to make your harvest smoother, faster, and more profitable.
If you only look at price, you’ll hesitate. If you look at the return, the decision is easy. Sunnybrook components are an investment. And when the investment pays itself off in year one, every season after is money ahead.
That’s return on investment. That’s smart farming. That’s what investing in harvest should feel like.
