New tractor registrations (which mainly equate to sales) for January got off to a slow start but quickly gathered pace, resulting in a positive first quarter, up 23 units on the first quarter of 2018, FTMTA figures show.

The trade is running at 1,913 new units from January to the end of October. This figure is down seven units when compared to last year.

Interestingly, 2019 so far has been quite the opposite of 2018 in that registration numbers for the first six months of 2019 were 54 units ahead of the same period in 2018. The second half of the year is where the trend turned, with the second half of 2019 up to the end of October behind the equivalent period of 2018.

July to the end of October 2019 saw 535 new tractors registered. The same period last year had 596, or 61 units more.

November and December

Over the past three years, November and December have had the fewest registrations, with November averaging 44 units and December 24. If this year’s figures are in line with these averages, we can expect the total year’s registrations to be in the region of 1,981, just three fewer tractors than 2018.

However, if November and December follow the same trend as the past three months, both months be down 27% on last year’s average for the same months.

Power bands

The trend towards the higher horsepower brackets continues. Tractors in excess of 100hp accounted for 90.5% of new units registered so far this year.

The most popular power band remains between 101hp and 120hp, which accounts for 33.5% of the market to date. The power band between 121hp and 150hp accounts for 27.5%, while 22.5% of tractors were between 151hp and 200hp. A total of 30% were over 151hp.

Most popular month

The most popular month for new registrations remains January, with an average of 413 new tractors registered during the first month over the last three years. July this year saw 281 new registrations, the highest number of registrations for the month since the introduction of the split-year system.