A total of 32 new self-propelled silage harvesters have been registered in the Republic of Ireland during the first five months of the year, according to the most recent data provided by the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA).

This equates to an 18% decline on the respective period in 2023 when 38 new machines were registered, before the year closed out with a total of 39 new units registered.

It’s worth noting that the bulk of annual registrations tend to take place just before the working season kicks off (April and May) as is normally the case with seasonal machines such as forage harvesters. This can be obtained from the FTMTA data, which shows that one machine was registered in January, followed by three in March, 10 in April and 18 in May.

Although it’s early to say for definite, it appears as if the total number of forager registrations is going to be back on 2023 figures.

This is allowing for the fact that a small number of new machines could have been registered in June or possibly over the coming months.

In 2019, a recordbreaking 58 new forage harvesters were registered. The closest number since has been 41 and 40 units, respectively, during 2021 and 2022.

A total of five imported used machines were first-time registered within the five-month period of 2024.

Meanwhile, five Krone Big M 450 self-propelled mowers have been registered so far this year, unchanged from 2023 when five new machines were also registered.

Twelve out of the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland recorded new forager registrations within the first five months of 2024.

As is the case when it comes to new tractor registrations, Cork is the county continuing to lead the way with 31.25% or 10 of the total new foragers registered.

Krone has registered four new Big X models so far this year, one of which was a flagship 1180 model.

Next up, Cavan, Galway, Tipperary and Wexford were all on par, each registering three machines for the period. Louth, Meath and Offaly all recorded two new forager registrations while Dublin, Kerry, Limerick and Monaghan recorded one new registration each.

Brands

According to the FTMTA data, the Claas brand accounted for 22 new registrations or 68.75% of all new forager registered so far this year. This already marks an increase of one unit on its performance for the entirety of 2023 when 21 new Jaguar models were registered. Five of the machines registered this year were the flagship Jaguar 990 model.

Five Krone Big M 450 units were registered between January and the end of May.

Meanwhile, John Deere recorded the second highest registrations up until the end of May, with six new machines registered.

Although there are still seven months’ worth of data to come in theory, Deere would need to register eight more machines to match its 2023 performance.

Krone has so far recorded four new forager registrations, up one unit on all of 2023. New Holland has so far recorded no new registrations and last year recorded one registration for the year.

Claas accounts for 69% of all new foragers registered this year to date.