As another farming season gears up, Deere & Company, better known as John Deere, has announced an increasing amount of layoffs at their locations over the past 10 months. According to KTVO News based in Kirksville, Missouri; 1,740 John Deere employees have been laid off in the last ten months, including in this past week where on Friday Jan. 3, 2025, 399 more employees were laid off. 80 workers were laid off at Davenport Works, another seven employees laid off at the company’s Seeding and Cylinder operations in Moline, 112 were laid off at the plant in Waterloo, and 200 more were laid off at Harvester Works in East Moline. Now in the company’s first layoff announcement in 2025, 75 workers will be laid off at the company’s Ottumwa facility, effective on Friday Feb. 7, 2025. These layoffs are not only massive for the farm industry as a whole, but individual farmers that are trying to make ends meet.
While senior Leyton Wulf and his family do not grow crops, they used to have a piece of John Deere equipment before it blew up and it became unusable. Now with more layoffs, he thinks there will be more impacts with the farm industry.
“If you’re laying off too many, it’s going to slow down production of equipment in general, and then slow down equipment and slow down everything else. It’ll probably have a decent effect on it,” Wulf said.
Junior Jason Heggen goes to the farm owned by his grandparents often. While they do not have tons of John Deere equipment at the farm they know how these layoffs will affect themselves and the industry from a financial standpoint.
“It can cause a shift in how everything is done, causing a shift in the economy and the affordability of tractors for many farmers, which may be able to push farmers to grow,” Heggen said.
Heggen’s grandparents farm also has some backup plans if they are necessary to use.
“They’ll either switch brands, or simply protest in whatever way they can, most likely switching brands is the easiest option for most farmers,” Heggen said.
Sophomore Gavin Fitzsimmons does not live on a farm; however his grandpa is a farmer who uses John Deere equipment. John Deere recently announced that they would produce driverless tractors and equipment, with select models ready right out of the factory. Fitzsimmons shared his opinion on the technology.
“I’d probably be mad because, you know, I’d be losing money that way with low labor. You aren’t working so you’d lose your job,” Fitzsimmons said.
Wulf suggests that the driverless machines would run into problems once it is out in the field.
“There’s gonna be a lot wrong with that, I almost guarantee it, because if, let’s just say hypothetically, if they do it where you got to map out the route they’ll go, I almost bet it’s gonna mess up at one point; so either your brand new piece of equipment is gonna end up in a tree, broken, or upside down somewhere,” Wulf said.
Heggen cautiously looks at both sides, mentioning some good but also the risks included; depending on the farmer. For most, the risks outweigh the positives.
“I think it’s smart and it might help some farmers. However, there’s a lot of risks included, due to the fact that you have no control over equipment, there can be bugs, and a field isn’t a set road,” Heggen said.
With all these layoffs and different struggles throughout John Deere, the farm industry, and on individual’s farms, the tension is building. As another farming season gears up, farmers across the Midwest wonder if their farms, lifelines, and prides of joy will survive another year.
