Implement companies were also affected by the recession because of excessive inventories of farm machinery. Various successes in the 1970s increased farmers' optimism, and they began to buy more land and equipment, thus increasing their debts. However, in the1980s farmers stopped buying new equipment from implements and instead purchased used equipment from bankrupt farmers' auctions. These auctions forced implements to cut their prices in order to compete in the market. In 1985, Emmett Barker, Farm and Industrial Equipment Institute (FIEI) president, said, "Unless we have a cataclysmic event that changes the whole nature of demand for food stocks, I don't see much reason for farmers to be back purchasing machinery in a big way for the foreseeable future." The FIEI reported that U.S. large tractor sales were down 23 percent for the first half of 1985 when compared to 1984 sales. 1985 implements had $2 billion in unpaid bills, causing one-fifth of corn-belt implement dealers to close. In 1986 Deere cut farm equipment production and provided funding to reduce huge dealer inventories. Deere's strike of 1986 also helped reduce inventories by $581 million in the fourth quarter of 1986. Farm equipment accounts for 70 percent of Deere & Company's annual $3 billion revenue, so the lack in sales of large farm machinery started to take its toll on Deere.