(Radio Iowa) – Deere & Company, Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, is releasing its third quarter earnings report today (Friday) in an online conference call. Deere officials say the company is continuing to grow and thrive in the face of economic setbacks in the global marketplace. Rachel Bach is Deere’s manager of investor communications. Bach says, “John Deere achieved higher production rates in the third quarter resulting in a 25% increase in net sales, despite ongoing supply challenges.” The Quad Cities-based Deere reports net income of $1.88 billion for the third quarter, compared with net income of $1.66 billion in the third quarter last year.  “Financial results for the quarter included an 18% margin for the equipment operations,” Bach says. “Ag fundamentals remain solid with our order books beginning to fill for model year ’23 products reflecting continued healthy demand as we look ahead.”

For the first nine months of the company’s fiscal year, net income reached $4.88 billion, also an increase from $4.68 billion for the same period last year. The production and precision agriculture division reports sales increased for the quarter, which officials say was due to higher shipment volumes and price realization. “The construction forestry markets also continue to benefit from demand contributing to the division’s strong performance in the quarter,” Bach says. “Similarly, order books are now extending into 2023 providing visibility into the new year.”

With one quarter remaining in the company’s fiscal year, net income attributable to Deere is forecast to be in a range of seven to seven-point-two billion dollars. “Net sales and revenues were up 22% to $14.1 billion, while net sales for the equipment operations were up 25% to $13-billion,” Bach says. “Net income attributable to Deere & Company was $1.884 billion or $6.16 per diluted share.”

In a news release, Deere chairman and C-E-O John May said: “We’re proud of the extraordinary efforts by our employees to increase factory output and get products to customers under challenging circumstances. At the same time, our results reflected higher costs and production inefficiencies driven by the difficult supply-chain situation.”