Less than a week after announcing plans to recall and hire hundreds of employees across the Midwest, Progressive Farmer’s Todd Neeley reported that “John Deere announced plans to close two Iowa manufacturing plants in the next few years and move production to other cities, in a news release from the company on Wednesday.”
“Deere said it will be closing its plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, after moving windrower and round-baler production to Des Moines,” Neeley reported. “In addition, the company said it will end manufacturing at its Hagie plant in Clarion, Iowa, after moving STS sprayer production to Louisiana.”
The Iowa Capital Dispatch’s Cami Koons reported that “a spokesperson with the company said Wednesday that at ‘normal production volumes’ approximately 300 people would be impacted by closures, though he said Deere is currently operating ‘far below normal production volumes due to the downturn in the ag economy.’ ‘Specific employment impacts will depend on future business conditions, production volumes, and staffing needs,’ Dustin Lemmon, the spokesperson, said.”
WQAD’s Mikaela Schlueter reported that “Ottumwa city officials estimated the closure will lead to the loss of approximately 400 jobs, with total payroll loss above $30 million.”
AgWeb’s Eduardo Morales reported that “under the newly announced plan, John Deere will phase out operations at Ottumwa Works in southeastern Iowa. By the end of fiscal year 2027, windrower production will relocate from Ottumwa Works to Des Moines Works. Round baler production will follow suit by the end of fiscal year 2028. John Deere plans to close the 115-year-old factory by fiscal year 2029.”
“A similar fate awaits John Deere’s Hagie manufacturing facility in Clarion, Iowa,” Morales reported. “Beginning in fiscal year 2028, John Deere will move production of Hagie STS sprayers to its factory in Thibodaux, La., with the goal of ending manufacturing operations by fiscal year 2029. Deere acquired a majority stake in Hagie Manufacturing in 2016 and purchased the remaining ownership in 2020. Hagie has been a fixture in Clarion, a town of 2,770 people, since the 1940s.”
The Des Moines Register’s Donelle Eller reported that “Deere reported in August that profits for the first nine months of the 2026 fiscal year were 4% lower than they were for the same period a year earlier, with sales of production and precision farm equipment down 6%. The publicly traded company said it believed this year was the bottom of the farm equipment downturn, which led it to make extensive layoffs beginning in 2024.”
“… ‘We intend to treat employees fairly and respectfully through the process, and we intend to continue to support all of these communities’ through the John Deere Foundation, (Deanna Kovar, president of Deere’s agriculture and turf division) said,” according to Eller’s reporting.” She said the announcement doesn’t change Deere’s plans to invest $20 billion in U.S. manufacturing over the next decade.”
Fertilizer Producer Nutrien to Close Florida Facility
Reuters’ Khusbu Jena reported that “Canadian fertilizer producer Nutrien missed Wall Street expectations for third-quarter profit on Wednesday, weighed down by surging sulfur input costs in its phosphate segment and lower nitrogen sales volumes.”
“Following a strategic review, Nutrien said it will optimize its core Aurora operations and shut its higher-cost White Springs facility in Florida in the second quarter of 2027 as the mine’s reserves near depletion,” Jena reported. “… ‘Nutrien’s results reflect weak North America fertilizer demand amid higher fertilizer prices as well as higher costs in nitrogen and phosphate,’ said Seth Goldstein, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.”
