Art's Way Releases Fiscal 2024 Q1 Results

Apr 11, 2024

Art's Way Manufacturing, a diversified manufacturer and distributor of equipment serving agricultural and research, announces its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2024.

Sales: Our consolidated corporate sales from continuing operations for the 3-month periods ended February 29, 2024 were $ 5,723,000 compared to $7,087,000 during the same respective period in fiscal 2023, a $1,364,000, or 19.2%, decrease for the three months.

Our first quarter sales in our Agricultural Products segment were $4,236,000 compared to $5,445,000 during the same period of fiscal 2023, a decrease of $1,209,000, or 22.2%. We experienced a decrease in demand on our fall 2023 early order program for the first time in 3 years. While cattle and sugar commodity prices remain strong through the first fiscal quarter of 2024, corn, soybean, hog and wheat prices are all down significantly from where they were a year ago. With the softening of the agriculture economy, we are expecting decreases in farm income levels from the past two fiscal years and expect that and will continue to affect sales in our Agricultural Products segment. We are also seeing increased inventory on dealer lots compared to a year ago and in turn have seen a slowdown in orders. We have put cost-cutting measures in place to partially mitigate the effect on cash flow from decreased sales. In our first fiscal quarter for 2024, we began right-sizing our staffing, including layoffs of non-production employees and offering early retirement incentives to employees at retirement age. We plan to continue to focus on investments that move our operational improvement strategy towards increased automation and production efficiency. From a sales standpoint, we are working with dealers to help move field inventory to generate more sales opportunities for our products. We are also focused on new dealer acquisitions to penetrate geographic markets that our competitors have a stronghold on. Our engineering team is developing new products for market including a sonar-leveling kit for our beet defoliator, a litter spreader kit for our manure spreaders and technological updates to our grinder mixers.

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Video: Veteran Farmers: A Legacy of Service in Rural America

Veterans Day is a time to honor the men and women who have selflessly protected our freedoms and values. And for some, the transition from military service to civilian life brings them back to the farm.

At Farm Bureau, we believe it’s important to not only celebrate veterans but also those who continue to make a difference in agriculture and their community. We've partnered with Farm Credit to establish the Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence to shine a light on those who have continued to go above and beyond to serve their communities.

This year, we recognize retired Colonel Joe Ricker as the inaugural Veteran Farmer Award of Excellence winner. Joe served over 30 years in the Army before retiring from the Pentagon and completing tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Since leaving the Army, his commitment to excellence in farming and enriching the lives of veterans has blossomed in a myriad of ways in both his local community of Wilkinson, Indiana, and across the country. Joe grows apples and raises bees on his farm in Indiana. Joe founded “Veterans IN Farming,” an organization, now with more than 1,100 members, dedicated to providing veterans in Indiana with the tools and training to succeed in agriculture.

The American Farm Bureau Federation is an independent, non-governmental, voluntary organization, comprised of and directed by farm and ranch families who engage in all types of food, fuel and fiber production.