Registrations of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) reached 10,602 units in 2016, a decrease of 2.2% from the level of the previous year, according to the Agricultural Engineers Association.
As a single month December showed a fall of 13.4% to 515 units.
Although this is the lowest annual unit total for more than a decade the second half did see a substantial improvement following a first half that recorded a year-on-year drop of 9.8%.
The average size of unit continues to increase with a 0.8% rise last year to 158.3hp.