9% fewer tractors registered in April 2024 - FTMTA

The Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) has released its own figures for the number of tractors registered in April.

They differ somewhat from the the Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, which record the number of vehicles registered as tractors to be used on the road, while the FTMTA claims to use a wider variety of sources to arrive at the actual number of farm tractors registered.

Compact tractor — Sales of smaller tractors saw an uptick in sales in April

The organisation notes that the new tractor market in April 2024 saw 191 units being registered, which was 9% lower compared with the same month last year.

So far this year, the FTMTA has indicated that there have been 1,069 new tractors registered in the year-to-date, a similar 9% decline compared with the first four months of 2023.

Sales Density

This equates a registration density one tractor sold for every 65km² in the ROI, and although Co. Cork may have recorded the most tractors sold, at a total of 157 units so far this year, it equates to one tractor for every 47km² compared to Co. Dublin, which registered one tractor for every 27km².

Away from the capital, it was Kilkenny that registered the most tractors for its land area, with one tractor being registered for every 32km² so far this year.

106 tractors registered in Tipperary — Tipperary performed well in the registration of new tractors

Co. Tipperary has sold 106 tractors units, which puts it in third place in the tractor density league, at one for every 41km² slightly ahead of Cork.

At the other end of the scale, it was Co. Leitrim that has sold just seven tractors up until the end of April, meaning that it took one new tractor for every 227km².

Registered power increases

There was no let up in the increasing share of higher powered tractors, with the most popular power band continuing to lie between 161 to 200hp, which, for April, accounted for 24.6% of all new tractor registrations.

Tractors in the power band lower than 100hp accounted for 6.8% of all new tractor registrations, slightly lower than for the same month in 2023.

The over 200hp category now accounts for 12.6% of all new tractors, with the monthly average tractor horsepower figure for April 2024 was 153hp.

Smaller tractors of less than 50hp made up 4.2% of registrations, well above the average for the year to date of 2.8%.

used tractors for sale — Used tractors saw a greater decline in registrations than new

Imported tractors were also down, with 263 non-Irish used tractors being registered for the first time in ROI in April 2024, 30 units less than in April 2023.

For the year to date, 935 used tractors were imported and registered for the first time, a marked decline of 16.6%.