Farm Tractor, Combine Sales Remain Up for 2023

Combine sales for all of 2023 were up, but barely, and were much weaker than would have been indicated by extremely strong sales through the early months of 2023, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) said in its monthly U.S. Tractor and Combine Sales report this week. Tractor sales are similarly poor in most categories tracked by AEM, but four-wheel-drive tractor sales put in a solid year.

The December 2023 report from AEM finds that combine sales were down 16.4% in December, but up 1.7% for all of 2023. According to the report, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) sold 7,369 combines last year compared to 7,248 in 2022.

For December, sales of below-40-horsepower tractors were down 5.8% and down 10.7% for all of 2023, compared to same-month and total-year sales reported for 2022. Sales of tractors, 40 to 100 horsepower were down 7.7% last month and down 9.1% for the year compared to 2022.

Big-tractor sales were down 5% in December over December 2022. But those sales of four-wheel-drive tractors rose sharply for the year, up 31.7%. The industry sold 4,564 of the big boys in 2023, compared to 3,466 in 2022.

The sales news is pretty good for two-wheel-drive tractors, 100 horsepower and above. December sales were up 3.6% over December 2022 and up 5.2% for the year compared to full-year sales in 2022. Total sales for the year were 27,750 units, compared to 26,387 two-wheel-drive tractors sold in all of 2022.

As DTN/Progressive Farmer has been reporting, it "feels" like farm-sized tractor and combine sales have moved into a downward trend. But AEM would caution that one month's reporting, even several, doesn't give a clear signal of a sales trend up or down.

AEM Senior Vice President Curt Blades wrote in the December release: "Seeing year-over-year gains in U.S. sales of both combine harvesters and 100-plus-horsepower tractors is a welcome sight as 2024 gets underway. And while several tractor segments fell last month versus 2022, we're still confident in the strength of the equipment market and remain optimistic about its long-term growth."

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

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