Some 194 used tractors were imported in October, 48 more than the same month last year. This brings the total so far this year to 2,114, a 35% increase on the first 10 months of 2016.

Meanwhile, there were 93 new tractors registered in the Republic last month. This is a major jump on the mere 69 registered in October 2016, but still lags significantly behind 2015 figures. There were 1,661 new tractors registered between January and October, a 6.5% drop on the same period last year.

This means that 2017 remains an unusual year, with the number of imported used tractor registrations running significantly higher than new tractor sales. This has been the case since mid-2016, when the Brexit referendum in the UK caused the value of sterling to plunge, making used tractors from the UK cheaper to buy for Irish farmers.

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