The market for used farm machinery is firming up after a steep two-year drop as commodity prices slumped in 2013 and 2014, according to Greg Peterson, who is widely known Machinery Pete.

"We’ve finally found footing, and even went up a little bit in fourth quarter of 2016," said Peterson, who began tracking farm equipment auction prices in 1989. "I think there’s a lot of opportunity here."

Prices for farm machinery soared beginning in 2004 when the price of steel surged on China’s rapidly growing economy. A boom in farm income beginning a few years later was like "a match to a bunch of gasoline on ...