Tractor registrations in June are down just two units in comparison to the same month in 2019, according to figures from the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA).

This is somewhat less than the 38% decrease witnessed in the May registrations.

The figures show that 63 new tractors were registered during June, down from 65 units in June 2019. This brings the total number of new units registered for the first six months to 1,208, which is a drop of 12% on the 1,378 units in the same period last year.

Split registration

“June is typically a month with low levels of registrations because the split registration year kicks in at the start of July and normally that drives a substantial number of registrations in that month. Anecdotally, there are reports of good levels of registrations taking place in the first weeks of July,” said Gary Ryan, chief executive of the FTMTA.

Cork (175), Tipperary (79) and Wexford (77) remain the counties with the highest levels of new tractor registrations so far this year. Meanwhile, Leitrim (nine) and Monaghan (nine) remain the only counties with registrations not yet reaching double figures.

Registrations of new tractors with over 100hp fell back slightly, to just under 90% in the first six months. Nearly 59% of all tractors registered in this period have in excess of 120hp and just over 31% of all registrations are of tractors with more than 150hp.

NI and the UK

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, figures from the Agricultural Engineers Association show that 218 units have been registered for the first six months, down 37.5% on the 349 units registered for the same period in 2019.

Total UK agricultural tractor registrations showed some signs of recovery in June, although they remained below the level seen last year. With 932 machines registered in June, the monthly total was 15% down year on year, but still a much smaller decline than those seen in April and May.

According to the Agricultural Engineers Association, this is likely to be partly due to an easing of the impact of COVID-19 on delivery times as factories across Europe were generally back and running, albeit some at reduced capacity.

Total registrations in the UK remain down year on year by 24.7% at 5,195 units. Essentially, around 1,700 fewer tractors were registered this year in the UK, compared with the first half of 2019. The decline is blamed largely on the effect of the virus, along with other factors negatively impacting on demand such as the weather and political uncertainty.

Registrations of used imported tractors in Ireland recovered somewhat during June. This was down to the gradual reopening of the NCT centre network through which such activity is carried out. June saw 72 used imports registered as against a total of 26 used imports registered during April and May. There have been 888 used imports registered in the first six months of the year which is a considerable drop from the 1,689 registered in the same period of last year. The closure of the NCT centres during much of the second quarter obviously impacted heavily on this activity.