A month-on-month pattern of a drop in tractor registrations stretching back to September last year has been reversed in June.

UK tractor registrations totalled 1,198 in June 2015, a 4.7% rise over the same month in 2014, according to the AEA.

There has been a prolonged monthly dip in tractor sales since September 2014 which were down 12.9%, followed by 22% down in October and 25% down in November.

December 2014 and January 2015 saw reduced dips of 5% and 8.3% respectively, whilst February sales dropped by 28%, before levelling to just 0.8% down in April.

Then came the huge drop of 33% in May this year, followed by this latest reversal to 4.7% up in June.

Overall then, the six-month total from January to June 2015 was 5,964, a 14.1% drop compared with last year’s level at the same point.

A spokesman for the AEA said, "I think most people were hoping that the drop would be around the 10% mark for the first half of the year, but dealer stocks, particularly of used tractors which normally get sold for export is inhibiting the market. However, there is some hope that the second half of the year can recover some ground particularly at the back-end when sales were poor in 2014."

Meanwhile, the average power of tractors sold in the first six months was 154.4hp, a small 1.8% increase on the year earlier.