Just 10,241 new tractors were registered in the UK last year. Down 13% on the numbers in 2023, last year’s figure was the lowest in any year since 1998.
The AEA reports that the final figure of 10,241 units was only fractionally below those seen in other recent low points, such as 2015, 2016 and 2020, though. It does break a run during which registrations fell between 11,500 and 12,100 in six out of seven years.
Last year’s total could have been even lower was it not for an uptick in the final month of the year. For the first and only time all year, the number of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) registered in December was higher than in the same month the year before. At 791 machines, the monthly total was 14% higher than in December 2023 and was also 5.0% above the average for the time of year over the previous five years.

Source images: AEA Economics Department
Registrations were only down 5.0% in the final three months of 2024, compared with the equivalent period a year earlier, a much smaller decline than those seen in the previous three quarters (-14% in Q1, -13% in Q2 and -20% in Q3).
It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary improvement or an indication that we are close to the bottom of the market. We will know more by the end of the first quarter of this year.
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