It is not often that a company reports record results only to see its share price plummet. In spite of its management predicting sales will be up by a fifth in 2008, John Deere's third-quarter numbers were greeted with disdain yesterday. Its stock dropped 6 per cent and is now down by almost a third from its April peak, underperforming a falling capital equipment sector.

The problem is not a failure to sell new combine harvesters. Farmers around the world, their pockets full thanks to booming agricultural commodity prices, are splashing out on new equipment. Sales to South America are growing at a tremendous pace - up about 40 per cent on the year before. Expectations for strong harvests have prompted crop prices to fall recently, but agricultural incomes remain high.