Farm tractor sales down nearly 10% for the year

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) releases monthly flash reports detailing retail sales for farm tractors and self-propelled combines. They use data from most, but not all, manufacturers from each category. While their report does not specifically link purchases to dairy farms, it’s not hard to look at this graph and notice a trend for 2008 (see graph from AEM below). According to retail sales trends the last five years, peak sales occur in spring during planting and see their year low in November after harvest. Then, year-end buying picks up during the month of December to end the year a little higher.

While 2008 did follow this traditional pattern; its sales were down throughout the year and ended much lower in December. Even though farms reported record profits in 2007, a decrease in sales by 20% in the month of November is something easily noticed. The biggest loser in this category were the <40 HP tractors down 26.3%. Year-to-date sales posted a 10% decline for all farm tractors.

Those year-to-date totals did include a few gainers however. Sales of 4WD farm tractors actually increased by 5.8% in December and by 21% for the year. Yet their tiny volume compared to other tractors did little for monthly and yearly averages. Self-propelled combines gained too. Year-to-date, self-propelled combine sales increased 3.5% in December and 19.1% for the year.