The latest market report from the FTMTA brings further relief to the Irish machinery industry, as it notes that in August 2025, new tractor sales stood at 130 units.

This is 17% higher compared with the same month in 2024, while the year-to-date (YTD) 2025 new tractor registrations figure is 10% higher at 1,808 units, compared with 1,638 units for the first eight months of 2024.

Power-wise, the FTMTA reports that the over-200hp segment did not fare quite so well as in the previous two months, taking just 10% of the sales as opposed to 15% in July, while the 161hp-200hp bracket saw an increase of 25% last month.

While the increase in tractor sales may appear impressive, they pale in comparison to those of telescopic handlers, which more than doubled in sales compared with August 2024.

This section saw a 107% increase, bringing the YTD total to 600 units.

Self-propelled forage harvesters have also done well with 48 units being sold so far in 2025, a 38% increase on 2024, indicating strong confidence amongst contractors in grassland areas.

Utility terrain vehicles and combine harvesters did not do so well, with the former being 23% down on a YTD basis while combine sales in 2025 are 9% down from last year.

The overall picture suggests that the demand for tractors is coming from the livestock sector, as it is the big tillage tractors and combine harvesters that are lagging behind in this sales boom.

The healthy increase in forage harvester sales adds further to this idea, as milk and beef prices have remained buoyant for the earlier part of the year.

These are significant figures, made all the more so by the fact that further afield the picture is nowhere near as rosy.

Over in the UK, August sales were nearly 19% down on 2024 bringing a YTD fall of 16%, while in North America, the decline was 9.6%

However, it was in the US that bigger tractors took the biggest hit, with what is termed the 4WD segment (large articulated tractors) nearly halving (-47.5%) from last August, while the YTD figure for these machines is only a little less terrible at -39.9%.

Back over on this side of the Atlantic, Germany is also deep into negative territory with a -13.9 decrease for the year so far. even though August showed some relief with a lift of 1.6% year-on-year.

It is the German industrial association, the VDMA, which compiles the figures in that country, and it breaks down the power categories into far more detail than most sources.

Two categories stand out in particular: the first is the 141-150hp segment, which saw a 76% rise for August; closely followed by the 181-190hp bracket with a 74.6% boost.

However, before too much champagne is spilt over the rise of the mid-horsepower tractor, it might be noted that the 151-160hp slice saw a 36% fall in the same period.