After reporting a deep drop in quarterly earnings earlier this week, Deere and Company now plans to lay off more than 600 workers at four of its manufacturing facilities, including one in central Iowa and two in the Quad Cities. Deere spokesman Ken Golden says the job cuts will be coming at the Des Moines Works in Ankeny, at the Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois, the Seeding and Cylinder Works in Moline, Illinois, and at the plant in Coffeyville, Kansas.

“The largest number on today’s announcement is from the John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline,” Golden says. “That’s about 425 employees at that location. Des Moines is going to have 110 employees on indefinite layoff.” Deere is Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer and the company announced third quarter earnings on Wednesday of 850-million dollars, down 150-million from a year ago. Ag equipment sales dropped eight-percent in the U-S and Canada, 11-percent globally.

“We are always going to align the size of our manufacturing workforce with the market demand for our products,” Golden says. “Our employees are aware of that and so there is going to be some flux in the size of the workforce.” There are two ways the company makes adjustments, Golden says, like with extended shutdowns at each facility based on what’s being produced there.

“For instance, in Des Moines, all of the employees will be on an extended shutdown through September 29th,” Golden says. “When we place someone on an indefinite layoff, as we have done today, we are not projecting a particular date that they will be called back. That’s the unfortunate thing.” Deere is also implementing a seasonal shutdown affecting most of the manufacturing workforce at its Ottumwa Works. Production will be cut in the fourth quarter to meet market demand, which Golden says, is “not anything new for us.” Deere revised its full-year earnings projection to three-point-one billion dollars, compared to its spring prediction of three-point-three billion.

(Radio Iowa)

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Officials with The Sam’s Club Giving Program say they’ve awarded a $500,000 grant to First Children’s Finance to provide finance and management assistance to child care businesses in Iowa and Minnesota. In Western Iowa the new Guided Growth project will focus on child care growth and quality by offering community facilitation, child care provider training, and comprehensive business assistance to help child care providers grow and improve their business quality, viability and sustainability, which leads to high-quality child care and education for all young children and families.

The program launches this month with a series of kick off events. The purpose of the events is to get local child care providers, community members and business leaders together to inform them of the opportunity.

The kick off events hosted by First Children’s Finance, Sam’s Giving Program, and Child Care Resource & Referral will be held:
• Tuesday August 19 in Clarinda
• Wednesday August 20 in Council Bluffs and Harlan
• Wednesday August 27 in Sioux City
• Thursday August 28 in Spencer and Fort Dodge

For more information on the Guided Growth project and specific times and locations for the kick off events, visit www.firstchildrensfinance.org/guidedgrowth or contact Angie Rae Duncan with First Children’s Finance at 515-229-5064.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — For candidates in the Midwest, almost nothing tops a photo opportunity with a barnyard animal or a colorful anecdote about life on the farm. Take Mary Burke, a former business executive running as a Democrat for governor in Wisconsin, who recently paused to check out the cows at a county fair. Or Illinois venture capitalist Bruce Rauner, who talks about his dairy farmer grandfather as a role model in his Republican bid for governor.

And then there is Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, who gained national attention with an ad touting her hog castration skills. Most voters in these states don’t work on farms. Most candidates don’t either. But many of those seeking office seem to be stretching farther than ever for a barnyard background to establish common-man authenticity.

A semi hauling about 155 hogs to St. Joseph, MO., overturned late Thursday night in Montgomery County, killing at least 60 and injuring the driver. The Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened at around 10:15-p.m. on Highway 71, about a mile north of Morton Mills.

Authorities say the 2013 Peterbilt driven by 42-year old Ronald William Moore, of Denison, and owned by Sioux Valley Transport, was traveling south on Highway 71 when the tractor-trailer crossed the center line of the road and entered the east ditch before rolling onto its side. Moore suffered minor injuries during the accident, and was transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital by Villisca Rescue.

The hogs were unloaded from the tipped over trailer into another trailer, also owned by Sioux Valley Transport. Damage to the semi’s tractor & trailer was estimated at $100,000 altogether. The hog loss was estimated at $18,000.

The accident remains under investigation. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by personnel with the Gran Fire Dept., Villisca Fire Dept., Iowa State Patrol, Montgomery County Emergency Management, and area farmers, who lent their equipment to assist in the loading and unloading of hogs.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican Governor Terry Branstad and Democratic challenger Jack Hatch sparred over who could best boost job creation, enhance education and improve quality of life during their first televised debate. Branstad and Hatch met yesterday at the Iowa State Fair. It was the first of three debates in the race.

KEOSAUQUA, Iowa (AP) — County officials in southeast Iowa have shorten the treasurer’s office hours because of staffing issues. The Van Buren County Board of Supervisors agreed Monday to shorten the days of operation for the county treasurer’s office in Keosauqua to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They tell the Burlington Hawk Eye the regular schedule of five days a week returns in 2015.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Members of a church in Dubuque are looking for somewhere to hold services for three to six months while engineers fix serious roof issues at their building. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports there are serious issues with the roof at St. Elias The Prophet Church. The Reverend Dustin Lyon says the Greek Orthodox church will have to close while a new roof is designed and built. Crews propped up the roof temporarily this week while parishioners rushed to move valuable hand-painted icons.

AMES, Iowa (AP) —If it’s the middle of August, the Cyclones are in the middle of yet another quarterback controversy. The Cyclones have narrowed their choices down to junior Sam Richardson and sophomore Grant Rohach, and coach Paul Rhoads says that he’ll name a starter by Monday.

A new report from the Iowa Agricultural Statistics Service is forecasting the state will have a record corn crop this year. Director Greg Thessen says the forecast is based on conditions as of August 1st. It calls for a total corn yield of more than 2.44 million bushels and 185 bushels per acre. Thessen says of the nine districts in the state, four are forecast to post record yields; central, east-central, south-central, and southeast. All nine districts are predicted to have higher yields this year compared to last.

The statewide 185 bushels per acre forecast compares to 165 bushels per acre last year. If realized, the 2014 yield would be three bushels higher than the previous record set in 2009. Thessen isn’t surprised by the forecast, despite the wetter-than-usual spring and the less than ideal growing conditions in July.
“There was a patch of dry weather in July, but evidently the crop had enough moisture from the earlier rains,” Thessen said. “And with the cool weather, it sort of eliminates some of the water requirements that (the corn crop) would have needed, so that was beneficial.”

Soybean production in Iowa is forecast at just over 502 million bushels, up 22-percent from last year’s production of 411 million bushels. The record soybean yield in the state is 525 million bushels, in 2009. Thessen believes the soybean yield forecast to be released in September could be dramatically different from this month’s report. “The weather during August does have a big impact on the soybean crop,” Thessen said. “We won’t know the answer until we get back out into the fields at the end of this month.”

The current forecast calls for a soybean harvest of 50 bushels per acre — an increase of 5.5 bushels from 2013.

(Radio Iowa)

Two separate accidents Thursday in western Iowa claimed the lives of two  people. The Iowa State Patrol reports an accident in a construction zone on Interstate 80 in Cass County Thursday afternoon resulted in the death of a motorcyclist from Pennsylvania. 39-year old Andrew Joseph Engle, of Pittsburgh died at the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic from injuries he suffered when he was struck by a tire that flew off of a trailer.

The accident happened 40-year old Scott Edward Farmer, of Cheyenne, WY, was driving a Ford F-350 pickup that was pulling the trailer westbound. When the tire broke free of the trailer, it bounced into the eastbound lane of I-80 and struck Engle in the upper body and head area, as he was driving a 2001 Harley Davidson. The accident happened as traffic was in a head-to-head pattern on I-80 on a bridge over Indian Creek, about a half-mile west of the exit to Marne (Exit 51), at around 4:20-p.m.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by personnel with the Atlantic Fire and Rescue Dept., Marne 1st Responders, Iowa Dept. of Motor Vehicle Enforcement, and Iowa DNR and Medivac Ambulance.

The second accident happened at around 8:10-p.m. on Highway 30, in Harrison County. The Patrol says a 2003 Chevy Tahoe driven by 19-year old Connor James Hemer, of Odebolt, was traveling east on  at around 8:10-p.m., when the vehicle crossed the center line of the road and collided with a westbound 2007 Dodge Nitro, driven by 45-year old Jody Lynn Hustak, of Logan.

Following the crash, the car came to rest in the north ditch. Hustak, who was wearing her seat belt, died at the scene. Hemer, who was also wearing his seat belt, was freed from his vehicle by mechanical means and flown from the scene by LifeNet helicopter to Creighton University Medical Center, in Omaha. A report on his condition was not available early Friday morning. The accident remains under investigation.

Assisting the Iowa State Patrol as the scene, were deputies with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Dept., Personnel from the Logan Police Dept. & Logan Fire and Rescue, Logan Ambulance and the Harrison County Medical Examiner.

Officials with SIRWA report that as of 4:42-p.m. Thursday (Aug. 14th), the Boil Water Advisory was lifted for customers in NW Adams, Montgomery, SE Cass Counties and the Cities of Grant, Carbon, Brooks, Bridgewater and Lyman; account numbers beginning with 047, 048, 081, 082, 084 and 005. You may now resume normal water consumption.

SIRWA says they will continue to flush their service lines in order to increase the chlorine residual and will continue testing over the next few days. If you have questions, please call the SIRWA office.
If you have a water outage, be sure and check your meter for a possible leak. Or call our office to see if there is a emergency outage, or to report an outage, at (641) 782-5744.