Since the introduction of the split year for motor vehicle registration purposes in 2013, the month of July has assumed as great a significance in relation to tractor registrations as it has for car registrations and is now second only to the key month of January in terms of registrations of new tractors. The latest figures from FTMTA in relation to registrations of new tractors during this July have been much awaited by observers of the trade given the reduced level of registrations during the first half of the year which saw a drop of 13% as against the same period of 2016.  July has brought some relief, while not offsetting the decreased market of the first six months, and saw 238 units registered which is, as expected, the second highest level of monthly registrations after January. Perhaps more importantly, the July registrations were only 2% down on July 2016 whereas January’s were some 15% down year on year. Hopefully, July’s performance is an indication of returning confidence on the behalf of customers, probably driven mainly by a resurgent dairy sector. It is to be hoped that this confidence will continue to manifest itself in the remaining months of the year in terms of orders for delivery during the early months of 2018. It is worth bearing in mind that even the full market experienced in 2016 of 1,876 units is less than 40% of that seen at the height of the pre-recession years. This much reduced market presents many difficulties to those businesses operating within it.                                                                                   

A total of 1,406 new tractors have been registered during the first seven months of this year and while that is some 11% less than in the corresponding period of last years the rolling year on year percentage reduction in registrations is now at the lowest level seen all year. As normal, Cork continues to be the county with the highest level of registrations during the year to date with 174 units and is followed by Tipperary with 120 units. Wexford and Galway show nearly identical levels with 88 and 86 tractors registered respectively. Clare has the fifth highest level of registrations during the period under review with 75 units.

Teleporters, backhoe loaders and wheeled loaders all continue to show improvements in registrations when compared to the first seven months of 2016. Teleporters are up slightly at 216 units versus 209 last year. Backhoe loaders are also up slightly at 34 versus 31 units. Wheeled loaders have performed strongly with 68 units registered which is an significant increase of 16 units on the same period last year.

Be a part of a stronger, professional, farm machinery industry – join the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association – contact FTMTA at 045 409309 or membership@ftmta.ie for details.

The figures for new tractor registrations during May issued this week by FTMTA continue to illustrate what has been a challenging year thus far for sales of new tractors. May saw 199 new units registered as against 225 machines in the same month of 2016. The total level of registrations during the first five months stands at 1,102 tractors which a drop of some 13% year on year. As mentioned previously in this column, July has become a very important month for tractors registrations since the introduction of the split year for vehicle registration purposes in 2013 and close attention will be paid to the performance of tractor registrations in the coming July.

Slightly over 87% of all new tractor registrations during the first five months of the year have been of machines with greater than 100 hp and 53% were of units with more than 120 hp. Nearly 25% of all tractors registered during the period were machines with in excess of 150 hp.  The five counties with the most registrations for the year to date remained unchanged at the end of May: Cork, Tipperary, Wexford,  Galway and Kilkenny have seen 144, 104, 74, 64 and 60 units registered respectively which between them account for just over 40% of total registrations.

The telehandler market continues its recent strong performance with 27 units registered in May which is a substantial increase on the 16 units in May of 2016.  The total  number of telehandlers registered during the first five months is 166 units which is an 8.50% increase year on year.  Backhoe loaders have also seen a significant improvement with 26 units registered during the period under review as against 20 in the same months of 2016. May is traditionally a month with higher levels of registrations of wheeled loaders, no doubt driven by silage pit activity, and this year is no exception with 28 units registered last month bringing the total for the first five months to 49 units as against 43 machines year on year. Cork and Tipperary have seen levels of 10 and 8 respectively of these machines registered thus far.

Be a part of a stronger, professional, farm machinery industry – join the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association – contact FTMTA at 045 409309 or membership@ftmta.ie for details.

The most recent figures issued by FTMTA in relation to the registration of new tractors cover the first six months of the year. A total of 1,335 tractors were registered during January to June which is an increase of some 5% on the same period of 2015. While June registrations were down 20% at 74 units, June is a quieter month for registrations than previously since the introduction of the split year for registration purposes (i.e. 161 and 162) which has seen much activity held over until July in the case of tractors as well as of cars. The new tractor market overall has performed well during the year to date, and probably better than expected, despite the challenges presented by poor agricultural prices and demonstrates the commitment of Irish agricultural to ongoing investment in efficient and productive farm mechanisation.

The figures released recently by FTMTA in relation to registration of new tractors during 2015 show a market holding its own to some extent in the face of challenging commodity prices. A total of 1,878 units were registered which was a drop of only 3% on the previous year. As anticipated, this marked the fourth consecutive year of a new tractor market ranging in size from 1,875 to 1,940 units. While a long way from the relatively recent heights of the 2007 tractor market at in excess of 5,000 units, the 2015 figure is also a considerable improvement on the even more recent depths of the 2010 market of just over 1,300 units.

 Be a part of a stronger farm machinery industry – join the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association – contact FTMTA at 045 409309 or membership@ftmta.ie for details.

Registrations of new tractors reached 220 units for the month of May, according to the latest data from the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) statistics service. That figure is up +9% on the May 2014 registrations. However, the overall year-to-date registrations of 1,183 units is 5% below last year’s figure.

Cork continues to lead the way with 164 new tractors registered for the year to date, while Tipperary is in second place, followed by Offaly and Wexford tying for third place, just marginally ahead of Galway.

The 100-120hp sector continues to grow and accounted for 37% of all new tractors registered in May this year. As the silage season came into full swing, bigger tractors have dominated the market; 50% of all tractors registered this year are over 150hp in size.

So far this year, 851 used tractors were imported to the Irish market, compared with 1,120 for the first five months of 2014.

Be a part of a stronger farm machinery industry – join the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association – contact FTMTA at 045 409309 or membership@ftmta.ie for details.

As reported in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal, new tractor registrations for February were recorded at 206 units, according to the FTMTA Statistics Service. This is a 17% increase over the same month last year and gives a year-to-date new tractor registration total of 558, just one more than for the equivalent first two months of 2014.

This is at variance with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) figure on tractors taxed for the first time, which shows that just 369 new tractors were taxed at local authority offices so far this year.

In all, there were 170 used imported tractors registered in February, up from 159 in January this year and significantly down on the February 2014 figure of 218.

Cork continues to dominate the new tractor market and accounted for 13% of all new tractors registered so far this year, followed by Tipperary, with Offaly and Wexford tying for third place.

Be a part of a stronger farm machinery industry – join the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association – contact FTMTA at 045 409309 or membership@ftmta.ie for details.