Canadian farmers continued to hold back on buying new machinery in September, Farms.com reported. Tractor sales fell 15.1% from a year earlier to 1,626 units, down from 1,916, and combine sales dropped 37.6% to just 78, according to the monthly Flash Report of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).
The fall was broad. Sales of two-wheel-drive tractors under 40 horsepower fell 17.6%, those of 40 to 100 horsepower 7.2% and those above 100 horsepower 16.2%, while four-wheel-drive tractor sales fell 18.5%. Over the first nine months of 2026, tractor sales reached 14,970 units, down 9.6% on 2025, with four-wheel-drive models down more than 25%. Combine sales, at 1,266 units, were 10% behind last year.
Machinery sales do not measure confidence directly, but they are often read as a sign of it, because farmers buy big equipment when they expect good profits, crop prices and cash flow. The steep falls in high-horsepower tractors and combines, the largest investments on a farm, suggest many producers are delaying purchases and keeping older machines running. AEM senior vice-president Curt Blades said September's figures "underscore the difficulty in the agriculture market today."
The data do not point to a collapse, the report noted. Sales remain above some earlier downturns, sales of two-wheel-drive tractors above 100 horsepower are essentially flat for the year, and heavy buying in recent years means part of the slowdown may be a normal replacement cycle. Even so, many Canadian farmers appear to be putting cash preservation and risk management first until markets improve.
Photo: Quintin Soloviev / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Source: Farms.com
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