At face value, a 33% drop in anything looks like a bit of a slump, or in the case of the AEA's monthly tractor sales data, a "depression", given that this index is so often referred to as the barometer of the UK farming industry.
Certainly, the drop in the number of tractor registrations in the past few months has been considerable, with the August figure coming on top of a 27% year-on-year downturn in July, 6% in June and 16% in May.
But to call it a slump or depression would be an overstatement - a "correction" is probably the better phraseology.
Looked at over the longer term, this year's tractor registrations are still pretty buoyant. In the first eight months of the year, UK farmers have purchased 11,889 tractors over 50hp. That is more than they bought in the whole of 2000 and 2001.
OK, by year-end total tractor sales are likely to be well down on last year's 17,000-plus. But even if they reach 14,500, as seems likely, it will still have been one of the best years for the past decade....
And, while the rate of purchase might have slowed, the trend for farmers to buy larger, more powerful equipment continues, with the average tractor sold now generating 140hp.
For the wider farm machinery sector, things are looking pretty buoyant too. Recent AEA analysis shows that farmers spent over £1bn in the first half of the year - similar to the first half of 2008 - with combine harvester sales at their second highest level for a decade.
Forage harvester sales are forecast to beat last year's business, while the market for telescopic loaders, big balers and ploughs remains "strong".
To some extent, the buying activity witnessed in the first half of this year was an overspill from 2007 and 2008, as UK farmers continued to spend money earned in those better years. There was also a degree of "catch-up" going on.
Since then, things have taken a turn for the worse, especially for arable farmers and milk producers who have seen sliding prices and, in many cases, are now looking at negative margins.
But this is likely to be a temporary state of affairs, and those in the livestock sectors are certainly having a better time financially this year.
It is inevitable that there will be a slowdown in the machinery sector in the latter part of 2009 and into 2010. But to describe the sector as "depressed" is to misunderstand the broader picture.
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