This year has seen the tractor market decline a little in Ireland, as was expected. The story across the rest of Europe is much worse. While sales in Ireland have fallen by around 5%, some countries are back 15-20%, like France and the UK, where the confidence from tillage farmers is low, matching the poor price of grain. The EU harvest volume predicted to be back by about 6.7% on last year, so this might help some tractor sales recovery.

This Tractors Focus looks at a few interesting areas, including AdBlue usage. The engineers have looked after the emissions, and now the operators must look after the engines. Dermot Forristal explains how power is measured by the different manufacturers, and takes the confusion out of some of the data that is being put out there.

We also have several reports on new tractors coming this year, and the top tips to look out for when buying Ireland’s most popular secondhand tractor.