M&A activity snapshot
Deal volume in the businesses that serve farms is rising while farm income softens. Capstone Partners counts 65 agri-input transactions announced or closed through YTD 2026, up 27.5% year over year, with crop input providers making up 46.2% of the activity. Within that sector, machinery and equipment deals rose by 15 and animal feed deals by six.
Food production is busy too. Food production dealmaking rose 21.3% to 108 transactions in YTD 2026, and 77.8% were strategic-led. Some of that volume is distress: roughly 26.9% of food production M&A has come from bankruptcy-related transactions and distressed divestitures.
Consolidation is visible in every segment this page covers. North American equipment dealers with five or more ag stores fell from a record 214 in 2022 to 199. USDA counted 1,620 farmer, rancher and fishery co-ops in 2024, down 27 from 2023, mainly because of mergers. The farm customer base is consolidating as well: 1,865,000 farms in 2025, down 15,000, with declines in every sales class except $1,000,000 or more.
Who is buying
Strategics. Operating companies dominate. In food production, most strategic activity (88.1%) came from private buyers, and public companies mostly made tuck-ins such as Cal-Maine Foods' acquisition of Creighton Brothers for $130 million. In ag retail, Nutrien reported that in the first quarter, it completed a tuck-in acquisition of a retail business in the US corn belt.
Cooperatives. Co-ops buy independents and merge with each other. Capstone ties part of the rise in feed deals to merger activity among agricultural cooperatives seeking to mitigate margin pressures.
Dealer groups. Equipment dealers grow by buying same-brand neighbors, and the manufacturer decides who can buy. When RDO Equipment agreed to buy True North Equipment's John Deere stores, the sale was subject to final approval by John Deere.
Private equity. PE is selective. In food production, PE volume held flat at 24 deals, with a nine-deal increase in platforms offsetting a nine-deal dip in add-ons. Regional funds focus on ag inputs: Baden Capital, a firm focused on food and agriculture in the Western United States, acquired OrCal, Inc., a provider of agricultural inputs.
What buyers look for
Products the buyer cannot easily replicate. Capstone reads the multiple expansion as evidence that buyers are willing to pay premiums for product innovation and domestic manufacturers. Proprietary formulations, private-label inputs and specialty nutrition all fit.
Recurring service revenue. Parts, service, agronomy and application revenue holds up through the farm cycle better than equipment or commodity sales. The subindustry pages below show what that looks like for dealers and applicators.
Customer credit and concentration. Farm customers are under pressure. Capstone cites Chicago Fed data showing farm loan repayment capacity at 63 against a 10-year average of 84.8. Buyers age receivables and test whether a few large growers or integrators carry the business.
Licenses and approvals that transfer. Agribusiness deals depend on permissions held by the company or its people: OEM dealer agreements, pesticide dealer and applicator certifications, FDA feed mill licenses and FAA operating certificates. Each subindustry page lists the specific ones.
What makes a strong company
Across agribusiness segments, the businesses that draw competing bids tend to show:
- Revenue spread across many farm customers and crops or species, with no single grower, integrator or cooperative setting the price.
- Recurring service, parts or agronomy income large enough to carry fixed costs through a down year.
- A management team and certified staff that do not depend on the owner, which matters because 38% of U.S. farm producers are 65 or older and many service-business owners are in the same position.
- Clean, current licenses and OEM or supplier agreements, with the change-of-control terms understood before a buyer asks.
- Disciplined working capital: inventory aged honestly and grower receivables collected on terms.
Valuation and deal structure
Published multiples come from sector averages that include larger deals:
- Agri-inputs: average 2.4x EV/Revenue and 12.0x EV/EBITDA in 2024-YTD 2026, versus 2.8x and 8.9x in 2022-2023.
- Food production: average 10.0x EV/EBITDA in YTD 2026, flat with full-year 2025.
- Middle-market reference: Capstone's index put average M&A valuations at 9.8x EV/EBITDA in 2025, and noted that Agriculture also saw higher average multiples overall, even as several distressed transactions weighed on specific subsectors.
- Lower-middle-market proxy (all industries, not ag-specific): GF Data reported average purchase multiples of 7.2x trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA in 2025.
No public source reports agribusiness multiples by size band. A family-owned dealer, applicator or feed mill with a few million dollars of EBITDA should treat the sector averages as a ceiling, not a starting point.
Deal structure in agribusiness is shaped by seasonality and third-party consent. Working capital can be a large share of the price in input distribution. Manufacturer approval controls equipment dealer sales. Earnouts tied to retaining customers or acres are common where results depend on a few relationships. The subindustry pages give sourced examples of each.
Subindustries
The four segments below have different buyers, licenses and value drivers. Each page covers that segment's deal activity, buyers and valuation data, and says plainly where public data is thin.