Registrations of new tractors in Ireland as reported by the FTMTA Statistics Service continue at a relatively encouraging level. A total of 1,779 new tractors have been registered during the first nine months of 2012 which is a 23% improvement on the same period of 2011 and is actually 15% greater than the number of registrations during all of 2011 which was 1,543.

The level of registrations during the month of September was the highest in four years at 85 units.

Cork, Wexford and Galway continue to be the counties with the highest levels of registrations during the year to date with 198, 128 and 110 units respectively.

The shift towards higher horse power models which has become a trend in the registrations figure has continued with 74% of all tractors registered in the first nine months having more than 100hp and 40% having greater than 120hp.

The figures for telescopic loaders also show some positive growth with 104 new units registered to the end of September as against a total of 87 units in 2011.