Citing EPA compliance and diminishing volumes resulting in an ever-changing industry landscape, AGCO has announced it will discontinue production of its line of SpraCoupe compact, self-propelled sprayers for the North American market in 2013.

Mark Sharitz, AGCO’s marketing director for application equipment, said production of all SpraCoupe 2013 models – including the 4460, 4660, 7460 and 7660 models – will continue through May, 2013.

AGCO will continue to manufacture SpraCoupe parts, which will remain available to customers along with professional service support from their SpraCoupe dealers, he said.

For the past 50 years, the SpraCoupe brand has served farmers who want smaller professional-grade, self-propelled application equipment for applying fertilizer and crop protection products on their own.

However, the North American customer base for this segment has been shrinking, reflecting fewer, smaller farms and a growing number of larger farming operations, fueling demand for larger, more productive machines. Sharitz said these market shifts combined with the cost for Tier 4 compliance have made it impractical to continue the SpraCoupe brand after the 2013 model year.

“Our SpraCoupe brand has enjoyed a proud, 50-year heritage of serving farmers’ application needs, and we thank our customers for their confidence in our quality AGCO products,” Sharitz said. “This was a difficult decision, but a necessary step for AGCO to maintain its leading position in the application industry.”

Sharitz noted that AGCO’s commitment to the application industry remains strong, evidenced by the company’s industry-leading RoGator and TerraGator branded machines, which are backed by the most knowledgeable sales and support team in the business.