The AEA last week released figures for UK agricultural tractor registrations in June which we reported in the Service Dealer Weekly Update.

Since then, the Association say they have discovered an error in their database which mean that the published numbers were incorrect. The correct figures are as follows:

• Month: 1,034 units, -12.9% change (compared with June 2018).
• Year to Date: 6,198 units, -5.1% change (compared with January-June 2018).

Stephen Howarth, agricultural economist at the AEA says, "This means that the year-on-year drop in registrations in June was larger than we originally thought but not as sharp as the fall in May. Although the decline in the first half of the year was also larger than in the previously released figures, the total of 6,198 units was still higher than in the first half of any year since 2014, other than 2018."

This week the AEA has offered some analysis of how those machines registered during the first half of 2019 compare with those from a year earlier, in terms of power and location.

"In terms of power," says Stephen Howarth,  "the bulk of the decline in registrations came in the 121-160hp range, where numbers were down by over 200 machines (-11%), compared with January to June 2018. This accounted for around two-thirds of the total fall.

"The number of high-powered machines (over 240hp) also fell by 11%; tractors over 280hp fell by more than a quarter. Sales of the larger tractors bounced back in the second quarter, though, having been down by even more in the first three months of the year. In other power ranges, changes in the number of machines registered were relatively small."

At regional level, the drop in agricultural tractor registrations was apparent across most of England and Wales, apart from the Home Counties and East Anglia, but not in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where numbers were up year on year.

"The sharpest fall was in the East Midlands," said Stephen Howarth, "reversing a big increase in registrations in 2018, where registrations declined by a third. The South East, West Midlands, Yorkshire and North East all saw drops of between 10% and 20%. In contrast, registrations in Northern Ireland rose by 11%, compared with January to June 2018."