We are officially a nation of tractor lovers with over 39,000 machines registered with Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), that’s two machines for every farm business. From the big hitters like Massey Fergusson and John Deere who are tussling it out for top dog, down to unique tractors like the Porsche machine in Aberdeenshire or the Citroen in East Ayrshire, we have it all.

The tractor industry has seen big changes in the last 10 years with many brands being amalgamated or bought over like Ford. There are 13% more tractors on farms since 2006, see table on opposite page. There has also been considerable growth from newer manufactures like Claas. Despite thin margins on farm, high end tractors like Fendt have seen considerable growth with a doubling in the number of their machines in Scotland in the last ten years. Manufactures like Kubota have been investing considerably in their agricultural offering by buying up Kverneland and Great Plains (an American drill manufacturer) giving them a far great farming prescence. This has helped them to go from 667 to 1,153 tractors on Scottish farmers. Zetor and Valtra have a noticeably stronger presence in the north of the country. Potentially due them being more affordable options for livestock farmers.

The vast majority of tractors are now on hire purchase deals helped greatly by lower interest rates. It will be interesting to see in the future what happens if the base rate starts to rise and farmer repayments follow.