The number of agricultural tractors registered in the UK in 2024 was 13 percent lower than the year before, new analysis shows.
However, at 791 machines, the December 2024 total was 14 percent higher than the same in month in 2023.
This is according to new analysis by the Agricultural Engineers' Association (AEA), which provides updates on the UK agricultural tractor market.
Despite the uptick in the final month of the year, the total number of tractors registered during 2024 - 10,241 machines - was the lowest in any year since 1998.
Registrations were only down 5% in the final quarter of 2024, compared with the equivalent period in 2023, AEA said.
This was a much smaller decline than those seen in the previous three quarters (-14% in Q1, -13% in Q2 and -20% in Q3).
The downward trend in registrations was apparent across most of the power range, with the only exception being for the biggest machines, with power over 240hp.
The number of 240hp tractors registered during the year was 14% higher than in 2023, AEA explained.
Across the rest of the power range, registrations were down by 17% year on year, with fairly similar rates of decline across the board.
With growth in registrations limited to the top end of the power range, the average power of tractors recorded in 2024 increased again, to 179.7hp, compared to 173.8hp in 2023 and just 168.4hp in 2022.
Most parts of the UK saw substantially fewer registrations in 2024. The exceptions were Northern Ireland, which recorded a small year-on-year increase, and Scotland and North East England, where registrations were only down 3-4%.
All these are areas dominated by grazing livestock farms, which had a better year than their arable and dairy counterparts in other parts of the country.
The biggest falls were in the south west of England and the home counties, both of which saw registrations dropping by about a quarter, compared with 2023.
