Deere announces another shutdown of Waterloo plant

Quad City-based Deere and Company says its fiscal second-quarter results fell 37-percent, missing lowered estimates. Deere spokesman Greg Derrick says it’ll mean layoffs at one Iowa factory.The Waterloo Works will be partially shut down for one week in June where there’ll be a cutback in production of four-wheel-drive and large row crop tractors. About 500 workers will be effected, a quarter of that plant’s workforce. Derrick says the farm economy is in “reasonably good shape” right now as he says farm equipment sales are actually up.Deere posted a worldwide net income of 127-point-eight million dollars for the second quarter. That’s compared to 204-point-three million in the same period last year. Derrick says he’s optimistic about the months ahead as Deere is “committed to research and development..without slowing down when the economy shifts to a lower gear.”Deere plans to bring out more than 100 new products later this year, more than 60 of them in the ag division and many of them produced by Iowans in Iowa factories.