More than 48% of dealers say lawn and garden products are among the best prospects for increasing sales in 2014, second only to GPS/precision farming equipment, according to the September issue of Ag Equipment Intelligence. Dealers expect growth of 2-8% or more for the segment.

Compact tractor sales are also expected to be strong in 2014. Tractors under 40 horsepower and from 40-100 horsepower were among the top 10 categories for unit sales growth in 2014. Tractors with more than 100 horsepower were 14th on the list of growth categories.

Other significant news from the report regarding the 2014 dealer forecast:

“While remaining confident, dealers’ sentiments going into the new year are tempered somewhat compared to their outlook a year ago at this time. The biggest shift in the dealers’ view of their prospects for the year ahead is 5% more are calling for a ‘flattish’ year in terms of overall revenues from the sale of new equipment compared to the survey results from a year ago (‘little or no change’ 36% for 2014 vs. 31% in 2013).”

Otherwise, 39.7% of dealers see sales revenue increasing in the next year compared to 42.6% who fell into that category last year. Actually, fewer dealers are looking for a falloff in revenues for 2014 (24.3%) than there were one year ago (26.4%).”