Tractor registrations in July have witnessed an 8% increase in comparison to the same month in 2019, according to figures from the Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA).

The figures show that 304 new tractors were registered during July, up from 281 units in July 2019. This brings the total number of new units registered for the first seven months to 1,512, which is a drop of 9% on last year.

“Since the introduction of the split registration year in 2013, July has become a significant month for the registration of new tractors and is regularly the month with the second highest level of registrations after January,” explained FTMTA chief executive Gary Ryan.

“That pattern has been repeated in 2020 with the registration of 304 new tractors during July, second only to January when there were 429 registrations. Given the much reduced levels of registration activity during the second quarter when registrations of new tractors fell by 35% on last year’s numbers, the July numbers provide a positive indicator in relation to underlying customer confidence”

Cork remains the county with the highest level of new tractor registrations with 215 units registered to the end of July, followed by Wexford (103) and Tipperary (101). All counties have now reached double-digit levels of new tractor registrations, with Monaghan the lowest on 10 machines.

Registrations of new tractors with over 100hp continue at just under 90% for the first seven months and registrations of machines of over 120hp also remain constant at close to 59%, with registrations of tractors above 150hp falling back marginally to slightly above 30%.

Imported tractors

The association outlined that the resumption of registration activity through the NCT centre network saw a substantial increase in the number of used imported tractors registered, with 328 such machines registered during July, a 46% increase on the 224 units registered in July of 2019. The total number of used imports registered to the end of July is 1,216 units, a considerable reduction on the 1,913 machines registered by the same time last year. Obviously the lengthy closure of the NCT centres impacted heavily on these registrations.

Combine harvesters

Registrations of new combine harvesters ramped up significantly in July, with an additional 28 machines registered during the month to bring the total for the year to end of July to 35 units as against 45 units in the full year of 2019.

There are further registrations still to come through the system. An additional four used imported combines were also registered during July to bring the total of such machines to 14 units. There were no additional registrations of self-propelled foragers during July, leaving the total for the year to the end of July at 32 units. One used imported machine was registered, bringing the total to three.