Modest growth for farm supply stores

Slightly fewer home runs, more strike-outs, but a lot more base hits.



That’s how the nation’s farm-and-ranch retailers performed in the first quarter, according to the “Farm and Ranch Supply Retailer Survey” from Robert W. Baird & Company.



Comparing the two quarters, slightly fewer farm-and-ranch retailers showed double-digit year-over-year sales gains in the first quarter of 2014. But those showing gains in the 1% to 6% range doubled (see chart).



The bottom line, according to Peter Benedict, managing director at Baird, is that farm-and-ranch sales struck a “modestly better sales tone in the first quarter.”



The median sales trends were up 1% to 6% for the first quarter, compared with a median increase of 1% to 3% in the fourth quarter of 2013. And 69% of survey respondents showed year-over-year gains, compared with only 45% in the fourth quarter of 2013.