NOT SURPRISINGLY the main barometer in terms of industry confidence as far as the machinery trade goes, the annual tractor registration figure, has shown a severe slump in 2015.
Registrations of farm-scale tractors, ie those more than 50hp, fell by almost 15% in what was a difficult year for most sectors of the industry. That meant that only 10,598 new tractors were bought - the lowest number in one year for more than a decade. Almost every month of the year recorded a drop in sales, though June and November bucked the trend with some small increases.
The biggest selling month historically is March and in 2015, 1472 new machines were sold - a drop of almost 20% on the previous March, when 1830 new tractors found homes.
However, tractors are still getting bigger. There was a 1.3% rise in the average horsepower last year to 157.1hp
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