I'm a strong proponent of right to repair laws, but this story has alot of errors.
First, it is not a monopoly -- far from it. There are three or four huge producers, 10 to 15 mid-size producers, and who knows how many small producers. Whoever wrote the headline needs a bit more education in economics.
Second, unless things have changed alot in the last five years or so, many/most large manufacturers provide a large number of "rolling repair shops" during planting and harvesting. These are semi trucks with small machine shops and large parts inventories installed in them. Most medium to large farmers are pretty happy with the "rolling" service.
That all being said, it's stupid for the manufacturers to hold the farmers hostage to branded service. Hopefully the ag equipment manufacturers will learn this (and some economics for themselves) before they do to themselves what the American consumer electronics manufacturers did to themselves.
