By Farmers Forum staff
Canadian farmers are buying more tractors this year compared to last year, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
The association says Canadian farmers purchased 14,699 tractors from January to July this year, up 6.3 per cent from 13,833 in the same time frame last year.
While the majority of those tractors are less than 40 horsepower, sales of large farm tractors are also up. There have been 2,290 farm tractors with 100-plus horsepower sold in the first seven months of this year, 16.4 per cent higher than the 1,968 sold in the first seven months of 2017.
This continues an upward tick since the start of 2017 as 2016 sales were the lowest in years when tractor prices increased thanks to low crop prices, a strong U.S. dollar and a weaker Canadian loonie.
AEM senior vice-president of agriculture Curt Blades told Ag Equipment Intelligence that the 2018 increase is due to farmers needing to replace aging equipment and farmers believing the agricultural market will soon improve.
“It appears that farmers are now willing to make some of those investments they’ve been putting off for the last couple of years,” Ag Equipment Intelligence quoted Blades as saying.
Farm Credit Canada predicts tractor sales will slow for the rest of 2018 and decrease in 2019 thanks to rising interest rates, price pressures on farm equipment, slow growth in farm revenue and a weaker Canadian dollar. The FCC projects 2019 tractor sales to be down 1.6 per cent, four-wheel drive tractor sales to decline 12.5 per cent and combine sales to be down 12.8 per cent.
