Tractor gross sales in Eire could have gotten off to a very good begin with a 15% improve over gross sales for January final yr, however on the opposite aspect of the Atlantic, the image isn’t fairly so rosy.

The Affiliation of Tools Manufactures (AEM) has revealed whole tractor gross sales in North America, and these suffered a 14.2% lower in January whereas, simply the opposite aspect of the border, gross sales had been 7% up on final yr in Canada.

Combined messages

On the face of it, these figures could counsel that US farming is dealing with a disaster, however a more in-depth have a look at the figures reveals it was the smaller tractors which took the brunt of the decline, particularly these of underneath 40hp, a section which makes up 64% of the market.

Inside this sector, there was a 23% discount in gross sales whereas the following section, 41-100hp, confirmed solely a 7% decline.

It was a totally totally different story for tractors of 101hp or extra; right here the gross sales confirmed a wholesome 23% improve, amounting to 4,058 models, out of a complete of 16,174.

This means that the tractor market within the US is way totally different to that of Eire the place common energy lies across the 120hp mark.

Tractor gross sales and farm dimension

One clue as to why this can be the case is that of the 2 million farms within the the US, 89% are classed as small farms with a mean gross farm revenue of lower than $350,000.

Though the common farm dimension is 445ac, this latter determine contains all the massive prairie farms that we instantly affiliate with the mid-west.

Smaller holdings are additionally much more more likely to rely on off-farm revenue and with there being combined indicators on the wealth and revenue of American households throughout 2022, the reason for the decline in expenditure on tractors is probably not too arduous to search out.

In essence, the figures for the US point out that the bigger, industrial farms are having fun with a resurgence and are out shopping for tractors once more whereas the smaller, part-time holding of the sort that makes up nearly all of farms by quantity, is constrained by whole family revenue fairly than the efficiency of the farming enterprise.