Farm equipment dealer AgriVision Inc. of Glenwood, is cutting 28 people from its full-time workforce of 350 because of lagging sales triggered by the downturn in grain prices. The Omaha World-Herald says according to AgriVision CEO Jeremy Ostrander, the John Deere dealership also is offering early retirement plans to staff members over the next three or four months to reduce costs. Workers who lost their jobs — mostly in sales and support positions — are receiving severance pay and help finding new work.

AgriVision’s 13 locations in southern and south-central Iowa have customers in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. AgriVision was formed Jan. 1, 2014, by the merger of Barker Implement and A&M Green Power, which trace their history back more than 100 years. During the years of high farm income, grain prices and equipment sales, the company replaced two of its facilities and added on to others.

Ostrander said the company’s parts and service business “is still going strong” and is likely to expand as farmers repair and maintain equipment rather than buying new. He said farmers bought so much new equipment during the high-income years of 2010-13 that their equipment fleet is as new as it has ever been. Much of their old equipment has been exported to other nations.

Last fall, John Deere’s manufacturing plants laid off more than 1,000 employees, including some in Iowa.