‘If it’s not red, leave it in the shed’, goes the old adage.

Out of the 75,196 tractors currently taxed in Ireland, 22% are Massey Ferguson, figures obtained by the Irish Farmers Journal from the Department of Transport show. Over 7,000 of those were registered before 2002. For the last decade, first-time registrations for Massey Ferguson tractors have been around 500 per year.

While there are 1,433 Massey Fergusons taxed in Cork, it is most popular in Cavan, where it accounts for 46% (1,192) of all tractors registered.

The brand is also popular in the northwest of the country. One in every three tractors registered in Leitrim, Longford and Donegal is a Massey.

The registration date is the date on which the vehicle was registered in Ireland – not the year of manufacture or year of first registration of an imported tractor in another country.

Blues

Ireland’s second favourite tractor brand is New Holland. Over 12,200 New Hollands were taxed at the end of December 2018.

It has become more popular in recent years, with just under 1,740 registered in 2002 or earlier.

Over the last decade an average of 660 New Hollands were registered per year. This ranges from 370 in 2010, to 914 in 2017.

The blues are most popular in the south and east of the country.

One in four tractors registered in Cork and one in five tractors registered in Donegal, Kilkenny, Offaly and Wexford are New Holland.

Greens

John Deere accounts for 15% of the tractors in Ireland. Almost 2,500 were registered before 2002, and over the last decade an average of 460 John Deeres were registered per year.

It is most popular in Dublin, accounting for just over 25% of the tractors registered there. In Limerick, Louth and Meath, 23% of tractors are John Deeres.

Ford, Case and Zetor come in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively.

Tractor registrations

Cork has the highest total number of tractors registered by far, with almost 9,930. This is followed by Tipperary (5,111), Galway (5,003) and Mayo (4,675).

New registrations fell from a high of 4,554 in 2007 to 1,894 in 2010, and picked up again in recent years – with 3,405 registered for the first time in 2018. This includes new tractors and imports.

New Holland accounted for 25% of registrations in 2018 with John Deere taking 19% and Massey Ferguson 15%. Case, Case IH, Claas and Valtra all had more than 100 registrations in 2018.