The AEA has announced that they recently identified some problems with the figures for UK tractor registrations published since the start of 2019.

This was due, they say, to a significant number of registration forms not being sent by DVLA to the AEA. Since the Association confirmed that there was a discrepancy, they have been working with DVLA to correct the figures and are now able to issue updated figures for the year to date.

Stephen Howarth, agricultural economist at the AEA, said of the new figures, "These show that registrations of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) in the first seven months of the year were up 9% on the same period last year; the figures previously published showed a decline of 3% in the year to July. At 8,556, the number of tractors registered was nearly 700 higher than in January-July 2018 and just over 900 more than previously thought."

The table below shows the revised figures for January to July and the figure for August, which is published for the first time.

Stephen Howarth continued, "The figures have been revised upwards for every month in 2019, with the biggest change being for tractors registered in March. That month now shows a 12% year-on-year increase, compared with a 6% decline in the figures previously published.

"In interpreting the annual change, it is worth bearing in mind that registrations for the first half of 2018 will have been supressed following a large number of machines being pre-registered in December 2017, ahead of the introduction of the 'Mother Regulation'. Therefore, the increase seen so far in 2019 probably indicates a broadly stable market in the first half of this year, rather than a growing one.

"After an upturn in July, perhaps partly due to a limited number of pre-registrations ahead of another regulatory change, registrations in August dropped below year earlier levels again, for the third time in four months. At 712 machines, the monthly total was 17% down on August 2018. This suggests that, after a relatively strong start to the year, registrations have slowed down as ongoing economic and political uncertainty are creating a drag on demand.

"Nevertheless, registrations during the first eight months of the year were still up 6% on the same period in 2018."