With 90 new tractors registered in June, figures from the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) show that the strong start to the year has continued right up to the half-year mark.

Registrations in June were up 27 units on the same month last year, while new tractor registrations for the year to date are up 27% on the same period last year.

This means that a total of 1,539 new tractors have been registered in the first six months of this year, up from 1,208 a year previous.

Despite the sizeable year-on-year jump in registrations, it is worth pointing out that registrations for a large part of 2020 were affected by COVID-19 disruptions and supply chain issues.

The three counties with the highest levels of registrations over the first six months were Cork (208 units), Tipperary (125 units) and Wexford (97 units).

Longford was the county with the lowest level of registrations, with 16 units recorded to the end of June.

The 101hp to 140hp range is the horsepower band with the highest level of registrations with 755 units, accounting for over 49% of all registrations in the first four months.

During the period in question, only 10.5% of all tractors registered were of 100hp or less, 32.6% were between 141hp and 200hp, while 7.9% were over 200hp.

Northern Ireland

Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA) figures show that there were 61 new tractors registered in Northern Ireland (NI) in June, up on the 48 units registered in the same month last year.

This brings the total year-to-date figure to 360 units, up 61.4% on the 223 registered for the same period in 2020.

This year, NI has accounted for 5.3% of all new tractor registrations in the UK.

UK

Figures from the AEA show the recent surge in UK registrations continued in June, with 1,473 new tractors logged during the month.

This was 43% higher than the same month last year and more than one third higher than the June average over the previous five years.

In fact, it is the highest figure for the time of year in a decade.

This brought the total number of tractors registered in the first half of the year to 6,844, up by one quarter from the COVID-19 affected total in the first six months of 2020 and 12% above the five-year average.