There were 454 new tractors over 50hp in size registered in NI in 2016, representing a 3.4% increase on the previous year’s levels, according to regional figures released this week by the Agricultural Engineers’ Association (AEA).

As reported in the Irish Farmers Journal last week, figures from AEA indicate that new tractor registrations across the UK as a whole decreased by 2.2% to 10,602 in 2016.

The NI figures contrast from most of the 12 sub-regions across the UK with Wales being the only other region to have a higher increase in registrations last year, up 3.8% on 2015 levels to 1,081 new tractors in 2016. But the increase in NI registrations last year is compared against a low base in 2015 when the number of new tractors sold was the lowest in recent years. The 2016 figure is the second lowest. The highest number of registrations in NI in recent years was in 2007 when 1,020 tractors were registered.