Farm machinery demand is changing – where is your next lending opportunity?

Changing demand for agricultural machinery is changing how lenders compete. Captives, agricultural specialists and independent lenders examine how they are responding – and where those shifts create advantages or put them under pressure.

UK tractor registrations fell to 8,791 in 2025, the lowest since records began in the 1960s. The machinery market your business serves is changing; used equipment is carrying more of the investment that previously went into new machines.

The recovery from that low leaves questions about where demand will settle. For funders, pressure on farm incomes brings repayment capacity, equipment choice and pricing into the same conversation. For brokers, it changes which lender can support each deal.

At the Finance Connect UK Autumn Conference, “UK agricultural finance – who funds farm machinery now?” brings four perspectives together in the Equipment Finance stream. John Rees, head of equipment finance at Finance Connect, asks where each funder is lending, where its appetite stops and what has changed.

The panel will address the captive’s position when customers want used machinery or another manufacturer’s equipment; how a specialist lessor and an agricultural bank compete for the same tractor; and whether succession restructuring linked to inheritance tax is changing what farms borrow for.

Panellists

• Ed Thompson, general sales manager, John Deere Financial
• Robert McLagan, head of asset finance, Oxbury Bank
• Helen Gaines, commercial director, Rural Finance
• Vincenzo Scalzone, head of sales & marketing UK, BPCE Equipment Solutions UK

In this session you will:

• See how different funders respond to changing demand for new and used machinery – and where each gains or loses a competitive advantage.
• Know how funders approach pricing and credit decisions when farm incomes are falling.
• Identify which funding routes fit changing machinery needs, and whether succession plans are altering demand.

View the full Finance Connect UK Autumn Conference 2026 agenda here.

Register here: https://afcconferenceuk.com/financeconnectautumnconference2026/en/page/book-now

The Finance Connect UK Autumn Conference 2026 is supported by Odessa as Event Partner, with Alfa as Headline Sponsor of the Asset Finance community stream and Dancerace as Headline Sponsor of the Receivables Finance Connect Conference.