Tractor manufactures and dealers do need to keep developing their machines in order to keep a competitive edge and improve efficiency and performance.
By and large, these changes are incremental, but larger steps do occur, such as a new engine series or, more recently, onboard digital systems that enhance the operation of the primary mover and attached implements.
Naturally, if companies were left to their own devices, these improvements could start to impinge on overall safety both directly, through devices that present situations, which may be dangerous to operators and the public, and indirectly through the evolution of systems that may be incompatible with different brands.
EU restraints
In a bid to ensure that this doesn’t happen, there is a large body of legislation, created by the European Union, to which designers and engineers have to adhere to when planning a new machine or upgrades to an older model.
Yet, as new engineering concepts evolve, this legislation needs to keep up, otherwise the whole process of betterment would slowly grind to a halt.
This though, raises the dilemma of what to do with tractors that have been built to an old standard and remain unsold when a new set of rules come into force that should prohibit their sale.
Like a good deal of EU law, there is a fudge and a compromise is reached that will allow non-compliant machines to be sold to farmers, just so long as they were built before the legislation changed.
Tractor safety comes first
In the latest instance of this happening safety is the critical aspect for in 2015, and then updated in 2018, legislation was enacted covering Anti-Lock Braking Systems, high pressure energy storage devices and hydraulic connections of the single-line type.
The new rules clearly note that from ‘1st January 2025, the making available on the market, registration, or entry into service of new tractors (EU Category T and Category C) fitted with hydraulic connections of the single-line type will be prohibited within the EU’.
However, life is not so neat as to always fit in with EU legislation so it is recognised that suppliers of agricultural and forestry tractors may face difficulties in selling older stock, referred to as end of series tractors, that doesn’t meet the latest requirements.
To ease the situation the Irish government, has, in accordance with the EU guidelines, introduced a derogation scheme that will allow these older tractors to be brought to the market by manufacturers and distributors.
This does not mean to say that any older stock items can just be placed on the forecourt in the hope that they will be purchased, this is EU beaurcracy after all, so there are limits to numbers and forms to be filled in.
T&Cs of derogation
The major constraint, is that the total number of older tractors allowed to be sold must not exceed 10% of the total sold over the last two years, on a national basis.
This obviously means that if a distributor has stock to move on, he needs to make sure that he is at the head of the queue in applying for derogation.
There are also criteria to be met, the main items being that the tractor must already be in Ireland and is intended to be used here, and that it must have met the standards in force when it was produced.
There is also some interaction needed with the Department in shape of Form DAFM-EoS-Tractors-Application-Form-2024, which may be downloaded from its site.
It should be noted that the derogation expires two years after it is approved and no extensions are available, so it is in the interest of the dealer to get it sold within that time frame.