Farm and Garden Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers (NAICS 42382)

A Histometrics rollup primer for public-market and private investors

This is a single-child level. NAICS ("North American Industry Classification System," the U.S. federal taxonomy for industries) code 42382 contains exactly one child industry, 423820, with the same name. At this level the two are effectively identical — the same dealers, the same economics, the same numbers. This page is a short rollup: it gives this level's own federal figures and points you to the full 423820 primer for the detailed treatment (competitive dynamics, named companies, margin mechanics, and the regulatory and cyclical picture).

1. Overview

This is the distribution and dealer layer between the companies that build farm and lawn equipment — tractors, combines, planters, hay balers, irrigation systems, mowers — and the farmers, ranchers, landscapers, and municipalities that use it. A "merchant wholesaler" here buys equipment and parts, takes them into its own inventory, and resells them, mostly to commercial and agricultural buyers rather than households [2]. Census classifies durable capital goods such as farm machinery as wholesale trade even when sold one unit at a time directly to the end user, which is why a farm dealership is a wholesaler even though a farmer walks in and buys a tractor [3]. In plain terms these are the farm-equipment and outdoor-power-equipment dealerships: the John Deere store outside town, the Case IH / New Holland dealer, the regional lawn-and-garden distributor.

Why an investor cares: it is a large, cash-intensive, deeply cyclical business tied directly to the U.S. farm economy — and one with an unusual profit engine. Dealers make very little on the machine itself and most of their money on parts and service afterward, which makes them more resilient than headline equipment-sales swings suggest.

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

At the five-digit NAICS level, 42382 has a single six-digit child, 423820, also named "Farm and Garden Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers." There is no second industry to aggregate, so the rollup and the child are one and the same. Everything specific to the sector — scope, boundary lines against neighbors, ownership mix — is documented in the child primer. In brief, the scope covers merchant wholesale distribution of machinery, equipment, and parts used in agricultural, farm, and lawn-and-garden activities — tractors, harvesting and planting machinery, milking and dairy equipment, animal feeders, irrigation gear, and commercial and consumer mowers — by firms that take title to inventory (they own the machines on their lots and carry the financing risk) rather than acting as brokers [2]. Adjacent codes that are not in this level: making the equipment is manufacturing (NAICS 333111 farm machinery, 333112 lawn-and-garden equipment); construction/mining-machinery distribution is NAICS 423810; and household-facing garden centers and farm-supply retail sit in NAICS 444240, with outdoor-power-equipment retailers in NAICS 44423 [4][5].

For full detail, see the 423820 primer.

3. How big it is (this level's rollup figures)

Because 42382 equals 423820, these federal totals are the industry's totals. Coverage is reasonably complete — these are payroll-paying businesses, not informal micro-operators — so the usual undercount problem is mild here. All figures U.S., from our ground-truth dataset for NAICS 42382, with the labor detail from BLS:

Note the employment range: the child primer now carries ~113,000–115,000 rather than a single point estimate, reflecting the gap between County Business Patterns and BLS counts of the same industry [1][6]. The occupational mix inside that headcount is the clearest evidence that after-sales work is the business: installation, maintenance and repair accounted for 35,280 jobs (including 24,770 farm-equipment mechanics and service technicians) against 31,900 in sales (including 10,060 parts salespeople) [6].

Concentration is moderate — a fragmented industry that is slowly consolidating. The largest 4 firms take about 30.2% of revenue, the top 8 about 35.1%, the top 20 about 43.9%, and the top 50 about 55.1% [1]. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (the standard single-number concentration measure, "HHI") is suppressed in the federal data for this level and so is not reported here [1]. More locations (7,500) than firms (4,317) is the signature of multi-store consolidation. National fragmentation is also misleading on its own: a territory may have only one practical authorized outlet for a given brand, so the local market is far more concentrated than the federal ratios suggest [8].

Undercount / boundary caveat. The $143 billion figure does not fully capture the whole farm-and-garden equipment channel: some dealer activity — especially lawn-and-garden sales to consumers — is booked under retail codes 444240 or 44423, and manufacturer-direct sales (plus the OEMs' captive-finance arms) sit outside wholesale entirely [4][5]. The true channel is somewhat larger than any single code. Two outside gauges of the adjacent scope: the broader U.S. outdoor power equipment market was valued around $12.9 billion in 2023, and USDA reported farms spending $21.0 billion on tractors and self-propelled machinery in 2024, up from $18.9 billion in 2023 [9][10].

4. The investable universe (where value concentrates)

Because this level is 423820, value concentrates exactly where the child primer describes — overwhelmingly on the private side. The largest operators are privately held, family- or founder-controlled dealer groups (United Ag & Turf at ~97 ag locations, Ag-Pro at ~84, RDO Equipment at ~34 ag stores of ~86 total, plus Heritage Tractor, C&B Operations, 21st Century Equipment and roughly 200 other multi-store groups), several exceeding $2 billion in annual revenue [11][12]. Public pure-plays are thin: essentially one clean listed dealer (Titan Machinery, $2.43 billion FY2026 consolidated revenue, of which $1.56 billion is the U.S. agriculture segment, across 90 U.S. stores) plus one ag-adjacent name (Alta Equipment Group, mostly construction and material handling) [8][13]. See the 423820 primer for the full company map, including the upstream manufacturers most public investors use to reach this cycle. (Tickers and market commentary are reserved for Section 10, per house style.)

5. How the money works

The mechanics are identical to the child. Dealers make very little on the machine — a typical 70% equipment / 20% parts / 10% service revenue split hides an inverted profit mix, because new-equipment gross margins are thin (~6–9%) while used equipment runs ~12–18%, parts ~31–35%, and service above 60% [14]. Titan's FY2026 disclosure is the cleanest public illustration: equipment produced 73.1% of revenue but only 33.8% of gross profit, while parts and service together produced 24.9% of revenue and 63.2% of gross profit [8]. The organizing metric is the absorption rate (parts-and-service gross profit divided by total operating expenses); dealers target 80%-plus, so the sticky aftermarket nearly covers all fixed costs and the equipment sale is close to pure upside — the industry's "razor-and-blades" [14]. Titan ran 75.2% company-wide in FY2026, a useful marker for how a large group performs mid-downturn [8]. Two levers dominate the balance sheet: floor-plan financing (short-term inventory debt, often through an OEM captive lender, that scales with interest rates — Titan carried $553.8 million of floorplan payables at January 2026 and estimated a one-point rate rise would cost about $2.9 million of annual pretax earnings) and inventory turns / same-store sales, the headline health metrics [8][14]. ("OEM" = original equipment manufacturer, the company that builds the machines.) Full mechanics are in the 423820 primer.

6. What drives demand

Equipment buying is discretionary and deferrable, so demand is far more volatile than the food economy underneath it. The drivers — identical at this level and its child — are net farm income and crop prices (high corn/soybean/wheat prices pull equipment purchases forward; weak ones defer them), interest rates (which hit both the dealer's floor-plan cost and the farmer's purchase financing), the replacement cycle and fleet age, tax incentives (Section 179 expensing, bonus depreciation), and precision-agriculture technology upgrades, now adopted widely enough to drive replacement independent of the commodity cycle — USDA found guidance and autosteering in use on 52% of midsize and 70% of large crop farms in 2023 [8][14][15][16]. Longer term, mechanization substitutes for scarce labor: USDA estimates agricultural labor quantity fell 83% between 1948 and 2019 [17]. The consumer and turf slice moves on a different clock, tracking housing turnover and landscaping demand rather than farm income [9].

The current reading is a downturn. USDA forecast 2025 net farm income up ~37% to about $179.8 billion, but the gain came from livestock and government payments while crop receipts fell — a misleading headline for equipment demand, since crop farmers buy the biggest iron [15]. USDA's May 2026 forecast puts 2026 net farm income at $153.4 billion, down 0.7% nominally and 2.6% after inflation [18]. Unit sales confirm it: U.S. farm tractor sales fell ~9.9% in 2025 to ~195,900 units and combines dropped ~35.6% to ~3,579 units, with tractors down a further 12.4% and combines 14.6% year over year through May 2026 [16].

7. Regulation

Distribution itself is lightly regulated, but three areas shape the economics (detailed in the child primer): state agricultural-equipment dealer-franchise laws (governing manufacturer–dealer termination and inventory repurchase); right to repair, the fastest-moving issue, which is eroding dealers' high-margin service monopoly — Colorado's farm-equipment right-to-repair law took effect January 1, 2024, and in July 2026 the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and five states settled their case against Deere, requiring the company for ten years to give farmers and independent repairers access on fair terms to repair capabilities equivalent to authorized dealers', including fault-code clearing, component pairing, emissions-shutdown restart and technical guidance [19][20]; and emissions and trade policy, including EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) nonroad-diesel standards that have raised engine and emissions-system cost upstream, plus recent tariffs on imported steel, aluminum, and equipment [21][22].

8. Consolidation

Consolidation is the defining structural trend, and it is why this level shows more locations than firms. OEMs increasingly favor larger, better-capitalized dealer groups that can fund service infrastructure and precision-ag support; the 2024 "Big Dealer" report counted 206 groups with five-plus ag locations — down from a 2022 peak of 214 as the big groups themselves merge — which together own roughly 39% of all ag-equipment stores in North America [11]. Barriers to entry are high — franchise agreements are scarce, inventory needs heavy floor-plan capital, and a credible service/parts operation takes years to build [11][12]. The countervailing pressures are used-equipment and auction channels that set trade-in values, e-commerce on commodity parts, and right-to-repair opening service work to independents. Full treatment in the 423820 primer.

9. Risks

The risk set is the child's: cyclicality (demand swings hard with commodity prices and farm income) [15][16]; interest-rate / floor-plan risk on unsold inventory [8][14]; used-equipment inventory risk (a glut of trade-ins forces markdowns — Titan's U.S. agriculture same-store sales fell 17.4% in FY2026 and the segment posted a $28.9 million pretax loss despite material inventory reductions) [8][14]; OEM concentration (single-line dealers live and die with one manufacturer, and face allocation, territory, warranty-reimbursement and change-of-control risk) [8]; tariffs and supply chain (a 50% tariff on imported steel and aluminum took effect in August 2025 — Deere flagged roughly $600 million of 2025 impact and ~$1.2 billion projected for fiscal 2026, CNH ~$120 million — partially eased by a June 2026 cut in equipment tariffs to 15%) [22]; right-to-repair erosion of aftermarket margins [19][20]; a persistent shortage of qualified service technicians that constrains the highest-margin work, against a base of 24,770 farm-equipment mechanics in the industry [6][23]; and weather and regional risk, where drought, floods or trade disruption can produce acute local contractions.

10. How to invest and the outlook

Because 42382 is a single-child level, the how-to-invest picture is identical to 423820 — see that primer for the full detail. In short: public exposure to the dealer layer is essentially one name, Titan Machinery (TITN, Nasdaq) — and not a pure U.S. 423820 security, since it also distributes construction equipment and operates in Europe and Australia — with Alta Equipment Group (ALTG, NYSE) offering ag-adjacent, construction-weighted exposure; investors wanting the same cycle with more liquidity typically own the manufacturers (Deere DE, CNH, AGCO, Toro TTC, Lindsay LNN, Kubota) or the used-equipment auction channel (RB Global, RBA) [8][13][22]. Private routes are where most of the value sits: buying, operating, or rolling up dealerships, or backing one of the large consolidating groups [11][12]. The decisive diligence items in a dealership deal are franchise transfer rights, protected territory, aftermarket gross profit and absorption, technician retention, inventory aging, used-equipment marks, floorplan terms and normalized rather than peak-cycle earnings.

Near-term outlook (forward-looking judgment). The cycle is in a trough entering 2026 — weak crop prices, high financing costs, a used-equipment overhang, and tariff-inflated machine prices have driven unit sales sharply lower, with USDA's farm-income support skewed toward livestock and government payments rather than the crop farmers who buy the biggest iron [15][16][18]. Offsetting that are an aging fleet with deferred replacement demand, the parts-and-service cushion that keeps dealers profitable through downturns, and June 2026 tariff relief [14][22]. The likely shape is continued near-term softness with recovery keyed to a rebound in crop prices and lower interest rates, over a dealer base that keeps consolidating regardless of where the cycle sits.

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau. Economic Census 2022 (industry receipts, firm count, concentration ratios) and County Business Patterns 2023 (establishments, employment, payroll), NAICS 42382/423820 — as compiled in the Histometrics federal-statistics ground-truth dataset. 2022–2023. https://www.census.gov/naics/?input=423820
2. U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS 423820 — Farm and Garden Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers (industry definition). 2022. https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=42382&input=42382&year=2022
3. U.S. Census Bureau. Wholesale Trade sector definition. 2022. https://www.census.gov/naics/?details=42&input=42&year=2022
4. NAICS Association / U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS code definitions: 333111 Farm Machinery Mfg; 333112 Lawn & Garden Equipment Mfg; 423810 Construction & Mining Machinery Wholesalers; 444240 Nursery, Garden Center & Farm Supply Retailers. 2022. https://www.naics.com/naics-code-description/?v=2022&code=444240
5. U.S. Census Bureau. NAICS 44423 — Outdoor Power Equipment Retailers (cross-reference). https://data.census.gov/profile/44423_-_Outdoor_Power_Equipment_Retailers?codeset=naics~44423&g=160XX00US0461448
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2023 Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, NAICS 423820. https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/naics5_423820.htm
7. U.S. Small Business Administration. Table of Small Business Size Standards (NAICS 423820: 125 employees). 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
8. Titan Machinery Inc. Form 10-K, Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2026. SEC filing. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1409171/000162828026022376/titn-20260131.htm
9. Grand View Research. U.S. Outdoor Power Equipment Market Report (market size and growth). 2024. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-outdoor-power-equipment-market-report
10. U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service. Farm Production Expenditures 2024 Summary. July 2025. https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/fpex0725.pdf
11. Farm Equipment magazine. 2024 "Big Dealer" Report — number of large multi-store dealer groups and share of North American ag stores. 2024. https://www.farm-equipment.com/articles/22441-big-dealer-consolidation-continues-in-2024
12. Farm Progress / Farm Equipment magazine / AgriMarketing. Top North American dealer groups — United Ag & Turf, Ag-Pro, Titan Machinery, RDO Equipment (revenue and location counts). 2024–2026. https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/153962
13. Alta Equipment Group Inc. Company profile, segments, and location count. 2024. https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/altg/company/
14. Farm Equipment magazine / Umbrex. Dealer revenue mix, gross margins by line, absorption rate, and floor-plan financing economics. 2021–2024. https://www.farm-equipment.com/articles/11554-a-dealers-ideal-revenue-mix
15. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service; American Farm Bureau Federation. 2025 U.S. Net Farm Income Forecast and crop-price outlook. 2025. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/farm-income-rebounds-livestock-gains-as-crops-fall
16. Association of Equipment Manufacturers. U.S. Monthly Agricultural Equipment Sales Reports (December 2025 and May 2026); farmdoc daily, University of Illinois. 2025–2026. https://www.aem.org/getattachment/9ee3a193-4c55-4c47-8e3a-ec1237b41f09/US-Month-Ag-Report-2025-12.pdf
17. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Agricultural Labor Analysis (1948–2019 mechanization trends). https://ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/110734
18. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Farm Sector Income Forecast, May 2026. https://ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-sector-income-finances/farm-sector-income-forecast
19. U.S. PIRG; National Agricultural Law Center; Marketplace. Right-to-repair: Colorado 2024 law and AFBF–Deere MOU. 2024. https://pirg.org/resources/john-deere-and-right-to-repair-over-the-years/
20. Federal Trade Commission. FTC, States Secure Settlement with Deere & Company, Advancing Farmers' Right to Repair. July 2026. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/07/ftc-states-secure-settlement-deere-company-advancing-farmers-right-repair
21. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Regulations for Emissions from Heavy Equipment with Compression-Ignition (Diesel) Engines. https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/regulations-emissions-heavy-equipment-compression
22. Deere & Co. SEC Form 10-K (FY2025); AgWeb; Manufacturing Dive; Farm Progress. 2025 steel/aluminum tariffs, OEM cost impact, and June 2026 equipment-tariff reduction to 15%. 2025–2026. https://www.agweb.com/news/machinery/new-machinery/what-farm-equipment-manufacturers-are-saying-about-50-steel-and-alum
23. Association of Equipment Manufacturers. AGCO Partners with Dealerships, Promotes Apprenticeships to Remedy Technician Shortage. https://www.aem.org/news/agco-partners-with-dealerships-promotes-apprenticeships-to-remedy-technician-shortage