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(Moline, IL) -- A decline in farm income of what the USDA says will be 27% this year is just one of the contributing factors to the more than 15-hundred job layoffs announced at John Deere in 2024. Another is high interest rates.
Peter Orazem, an economics professor at Iowa State University tells WQAD News 8 that sales of big ticket items like farm equipment, that need to be financed, suffer from the high cost of borrowing.
Another maker of agricultural equipment and parts says farmers are pinching pennies as an alternative to purchasing new equipment.
Marion Calmer, the owner of Calmer Corn Heads tells WQAD News 8 that farmers are purchasing replacement parts, trying to make their equipment last a little longer.
Deere announced another 345 layoffs in at its Waterloo Operations effective September 20th. That follows 600 job losses in the Quad Cities announced for the end of August.
That brings the total number of layoffs in Iowa and Illinois to over 1,500 this year.
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