It's tough out there at the moment.

This is something we're hearing anecdotally on a regular basis from dealers we speak to. Last week meanwhile, confirming what's being said, we had some pretty stark facts from the AEA regarding recent registrations of agricultural tractors. In short, it's not ideal!

The Association's figures showed that the "substantial downturn" experienced by ag dealers during the second half of 2019 had continued into the first month of this year. The monthly total of 477 machines registered, was 31% lower than in January 2019, making it the slowest start to a year since 2001.

Stephen Howarth, agricultural economist at the AEA told us, "Total registrations over the last year were the lowest for any 12-month period since December 2016 - November 2017. The wet autumn is likely to have contributed to a reduction in orders, which would be reflected in the latest figures."

Pretty grim reading if we're being honest. 

But as Chris Biddle convincingly argues in his opinion piece today, ag dealers of all sizes are well equipped to adapt quickly to changing markets - they always have. With the disruption that increased automation and advanced technologies will inevitably bring to the tractor sector, they will need to prove this once again.

Therefore it's with this in mind that the whole industry, dealers and manufacturers alike, need to be armed with all the market information at their disposal, to offer themselves the best advantage possible in these periods of challenging trading conditions.

There is a survey launching today, run by TAP who own Service Dealer, which is designed to offer genuine market insight for the benefit of the whole industry. They ran a similar one last year, gauging dealers' opinions on tractor brands, which was very well received. Today a revised survey is kicking off and once again they are looking to hear from the independent UK dealer network. The aim is to really grasp a sense of how tractor brands are perceived through dealers' eyes.

As they say knowledge is power - and during times of uncertainly it's vital to take a barometer of opinions from across the market. From customer to manufacturer - and, incredibly importantly, from that element which brings those two ends of the spectrum together, the dealers.

Having an understanding what everyone throughout the tractor supply chain feels about the brands within it, will allow informed decisions to be made regarding future choices and directions.

TAP stress they are not monetising this survey in any way - it's purely a fact finding mission. A mission which will benefit greatly from as many dealers as possible taking a few moments to participate in. So to this end they've added an incentive of a £200 cash prize draw to be won by one randomly chosen respondent. 

It would be great if as many of our readers as possible were able to give a few moments over to competing the survey. Last year some fascinating insights were gained. I imagine with trading the way it has been just lately, there will be some strongly held and well informed opinions to be shared.

TAP will publish the findings of the survey later in the spring.

Click here to take the survey.