Deere To Temporarily Idle Several Plants In October

Farm Equipment magazine reports that the economic downturn is to blame for Deere’s move to temporarily idle farm and construction-making production for the remainder of October at several U.S. plants, the company said.

Assembly of self-propelled combines will be stopped on Oct. 13 and continue to be idle through the end of the month. Deere’s UTV plant in Horicon, WI, will shut down during the same period. The Kernersville, NC plant, which makes about 24 units of hydraulic excavators per day, will halt output during the same time as well.

The company predicted last August its earnings would be unchanged from one year ago for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 ending this Oct. 31, citing increasing material costs during the period.

Deere said the firm would lay off 45 workers at a construction machinery assembly plant in Iowa, as orders have declined driven by a slump in the U.S. housing market. ❖