John Deere to Close Ottumwa Plant Announced November 4, Production Moving to Ankeny
Deere & Company announced on November 4 that it will close its plants in Ottumwa and Clarion, Iowa, over the coming years and realign some production. Citing changing customer demand and manufacturing capacity, the company said windrower production for hay and grain cutting at Ottumwa will move to the Des Moines Works plant in Ankeny by the end of fiscal 2027 (October 31, 2027); Ottumwa's round baler production for silage will move to Ankeny by the end of fiscal 2028, after which the Ottumwa plant will close. Deere, headquartered in Moline, Illinois, has operated in Ottumwa for more than a century.
The Clarion plant, which has made self-propelled Hagie sprayers since 1947, will see that production move to Thibodaux, Louisiana, and will close in fiscal 2029. Deere will also move small planter production from its Moline seeding plant to Paton in northwest Iowa in fiscal 2027. The company said the shift is not expected to boost employment at Des Moines Works. Its August results showed profit for the first nine months down 4% year over year, with production and precision agriculture equipment sales down 6%.
The United Auto Workers, which represents Deere workers and has about 6,600 members in Iowa, criticized the plan to close Iowa plants in a November 4 statement. The union and Deere are scheduled to begin new contract talks in 2027. Ottumwa is a city in southeast Iowa where the Deere plant is a major manufacturing employer, and the closure news has raised community concern about jobs and the local economy, with transition arrangements still to be announced.
(Source: Des Moines Register)
Source: Des Moines Register
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：奥塔姆瓦市得梅因河与 Bridge View Center 一带。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Des Moines River and Bridge View Center area in Ottumwa, Iowa. By Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
