Registrations of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) reached 10,598 units in 2015, a drop of 14.8% on the level of the previous year.

As a single month December showed a fall of 3.1% to 558 units.

AEA Economist Chris Evans said, "This is the lowest unit total for over a decade and clearly reflects the difficult conditions that farmers faced in a year where most commodity prices were very weak."

The average size of unit continues to increase with a 1.3% rise last year to 157.1hp.