John Deere still UK’s favourite tractor brand

John Deere remains the most popular brand of tractors chosen by UK farmers, according to figures from the Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA).

The most recent figures, which cover 2015, show 30.2% of registrations, representing 3,655 of tractors bought that year, were of the green and yellow variety.

The second most popular brand was New Holland, representing 18.7% of all sales that year, or 2,264 tractors. Massey Ferguson was the third most popular making up 11.2% of sales, or 1,354 tractors, followed by Case IH at 8.4% or 1,019 tractors, while Kubota tractors made up 6.7%, or 810 tractors, of all sales.

Fendt, Claas and Valtra accounted for 5.7%, 4.8% and 3.5% of all sales respectively.

Total sales in the year were 12,112 tractors.

Meanwhile, AEA figures also reveal the number of new tractors, over 50 horsepower, registered in January was 634. This is up 8.2% on January 2016.

The association’s economist, Stephen Howarth, said: “We’ve seen something of an upturn in the market since the middle of last year, although there has been some fluctuation from month to month.

“This is probably because of the improved financial position of farmers, strongly linked to the weaker pound. As well as pushing output prices higher for farmers, it has also meant an increase in the level of basic payment they will have received, in most cases, this year.

“Having said that, there is still plenty of caution around due to the Brexit uncertainty, so we’re not expecting a dramatic recovery in the market.”