AGCO posts lower profit as falling crop prices hit farmers

Oct 29, 2014

Reuters - Agco Corp posted a lower quarterly profit on Tuesday as growers around the globe, faced with falling prices for farm commodities, purchased fewer tractors and harvesters.

The company, which makes equipment sold under the Challenger, Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra brand names, reported a third-quarter net profit of $65.0 million, or 69 cents a share, down from $125.2 million, or $1.27 a share, during the comparable quarter last year.

Revenue fell 13 percent to $2.2 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected the Duluth, Georgia-based company to post a profit of 62 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by James B. Kelleher in Chicago; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.