Tractor registrations have recovered slightly in the back-end of 2015 following fears that the yearly total might drop below the 10,000 mark.

The AEA (Agricultural Engineers Association) report that the October total of 747 units was just -4.1% down on the same month last year, whilst November registrations of 590 were 12.4% up on November 2014 (525).

The total registrations for tractors over 50hp currently stands at 10,040 at the end of November.

With registrations levels of 606 recorded in December 2013 and 576 in December 2014, the final figure for 2015 is likely to be around the10,600 mark, a drop of around 15% compared with the 2014 final total of 12,433 and 12,498 (2013)

During the past decade, the best year was in 2008 when 17,104 tractor were registered. This dropped to 15,013 in 2009, again to 13,347 in 2010 before rallying to 14,094 in 2011.

The trend in the UK is mirrored in the US, where forecasters are predicting a drop of around 20% in the market caused by an over-supply and difficulties in moving on high-value used tractors.