Dealers, farmers more optimistic going into 2001

On the snow-streaked prairie south of Greeley, Terry Conwell rumbles his hulking John Deere tractor to life. It sputters and belches black smoke.

“It’s old,” the third-generation grain farmer says of the tractor. “I bought it used, and I’m due for a new one. I got the engine fixed up instead because my banker says I need to be cautious.”

For Conwell and most other agriculturists in the region, caution has become an all too familiar business maxim. He is “cautiously optimistic” when making predictions for the upcoming planting season. He is cautious not to label recent upswings in cattle and hay…