Having been in an industry that provides support for farmers for many years, I think a lot of it has to do with dealer loyalty more than brand loyalty for farmers, particularly medium to large farms (500 acres and up in actual production). They tend to require large machines; not just tractors but various type harvesters, hi-boy sprayers, etc. Those larger machines have all sorts of electronic yield mapping, auto steer, and a plethora of sensors that have the ability to allow multiple machines to interact with each other electronically. So the tendency is to stick with one brand for their newer, electronically festooned equipment so it’s all compatible with all their other newer stuff. Kind of a bigger scale version of why most people have cordless tools that are all one color so the batteries and chargers are all compatible. I have nothing against yellow cordless tools but all mine are red because it’s a bit of a PITA to have a rainbow of cordless tools. Particularly with JD, a lot of their stuff is unique to JD (their quick attach is a swell example on smaller stuff). Their electronics, if not A/M retrofits, don’t tend to play well with others. Some brands such as Agco, Case, and Fendt are a bit more open to compatibility with other colors. JD not so much.
The other issue is dealer support, which varies by area. For a large farmer, they need a dealer that will show up and keep them running in crunch times. That varies by area but JD is the king of that in many areas due to their extensive and well established dealer network, at least in the US. The dealer issue plays into who do you call when you need them. If you have to deal with one dealer and are a significant account that tends to get you more responsiveness and if you have an issue with machines not talking to each other you don’t get finger pointing and no resolution if all the potential problems are the same brand.
So the sum of all that is large farmers tend to have one color of newer equipment and Kubota doesn’t have much presence in heavy ag, so it’s most likely to be JD, Case, Klaas, or Fendt. Kubota is one of the best, if not the best, in the CUT and SCUT markets so you’ll see a lot of them with landscapers, homeowners, highway right of way mowers, etc. but not so much with heavy ag. They also have a reputation of being relatively light (kg/lb) tractors compared to their HP. That’s good for a lot of true utility tasks but not so good for tillage work.
In regard to utility type work, I do see some Kubotas on large farms. But a lot of larger farmers tend to use skid steers and mini-track loaders for their utility work rather than any type tractor. That used to be New Holland, Bobcat, and Cat (at least around here) but I have seen more and more Kubota branded mini-track loaders on farms over the past few years.
All that said, I have been seeing Case making some headway in market share here. Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps not, their increased presence here seemed to start about the time the arguments about right to repair and what you’re actually buying when you buy a machine started heating up. As I suspect everyone knows, JD has been the poster child for the manufacturer retaining ownership of software to the point you can’t make simple repairs without a service tech to reset software and A/M parts are forbidden on at least some of their large machines. As a competitive move some other manufacturers haven’t taken such a hard line in those issues and Case has a pretty strong dealer network in the big ag parts of this area as well.