A notable 177 new tractors were registered in August, with figures from the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) showing that this brings the eight-month yearly total for 2021 to 2,084 registered in the Republic.

New tractor registrations in August were up 63 units on the same month last year, while registrations for the year to date are currently running 28% higher than the same period last year.

With 2,084 new tractors registered in the first eight months of this year, registrations have now surpassed the total new tractor sales in Ireland last year, and in fact are the highest registrations on record since the Celtic Tiger era when 4,531 new tractors were sold in 2008.

Meanwhile, registrations are up 458 units from the 1,626 units registered in the same period last year.

County by county

The three counties with the highest levels of registrations over the first eight months were Cork (266 units), Tipperary (167) and Wexford (139).

Leitrim (21) and Longford (24) are the counties with the lowest level of registrations for the year to date.

The 101hp to 140hp range is the horsepower band with the highest level of registrations with 1,029 units, accounting for over 49% of all registrations.

During the period in question, over 10% of all tractors registered were of 100hp or lower, 32% were between 141hp and 200hp, while just under 8% were over 200hp.

Northern Ireland up 53%

Figures from the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA) show that there were 36 new tractors registered in Northern Ireland (NI) in August, up on the 31 units registered in the same month last year.

This brings the year-to-date figure to 432 units, up by a sizeable 53% on the 283 registered for the same period in 2020. The year to date total is already 50 higher than the total for the whole of 2020 in NI.

UK registrations up 23%

Figures from the AEA also show that 829 new tractors were registered in the UK in August.

The monthly figure was 26.2% higher than that of August 2020, marking the 10th month in a row where new UK tractor registrations were above their level a year earlier.

This brings the total for the year to date to 8,693 tractors, 23% more than in the same period last year and 6% higher than the five-year average for the opening eight months of the year.

The number of machines registered over the latest 12-month period in the UK has now moved back above 12,000 for the first time since the end of 2019.

In the year to August 2020, fewer than 10,000 tractors were registered in the UK.

Numbers might have been higher, but for ongoing disruptions to global supply chains, linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which have inevitably led to an increase in delivery lead times for some machinery supplies.