(Radio Iowa) — There’s still no word from the U-S-D-A on requests from Iowa leaders to help the state’s turkey producers recover from serious production problems caused by COVID-19. Iowa Turkey Federation executive director Gretta Irwin says the pandemic brought a sharp drop in sales and created a backlog of turkeys to be processed. “Iowa’s turkey farmers were impacted by the COVID virus by decreased sales in restaurants,” Irwin says. “As people locked down for those three-plus months and did not go out and eat at a lot of quick-serve restaurants that serve a lot of turkey deli meats, we saw those sales go down.”

Many Iowa restaurants closed or saw a significant drop-off in customers as they shifted to carry-out or delivery only during the height of the pandemic. “That has obviously created an excess inventory in the processors’ warehouses,” Irwin says, “and then that is going to now adversely affect the turkey farmers as they look to cut back production to try to work through that excessive inventory.” Irwin says federal funding is critically needed for the state’s turkey producers as well as for the processors that were hit hard by the pandemic.

“We’re asking for some support for those farmers who are going to be asked to not produce turkeys because of this excess inventory,” Irwin says. “For the processing plants, we are taking advantage of a lot of the other food assistance programs that the government is providing to food banks and to school food service programs.”

Both of Iowa’s U-S senators and the state’s agricultural leaders have asked the U-S-D-A for assistance for turkey producers. In their letter, they asked that agency economists work to devise a formula that allows this niche sector of the nation’s poultry industry to get the help it needs. Iowa is the nation’s seventh-largest turkey producer and ranks fifth in turkey processing.

(Radio Iowa) — Quad Cities-based John Deere is restructuring and implementing a new operating model. Spokeswoman Jen Hartmann says it’s been eleven years since the last “global” restructuring. The new model is called the Deere Smart Industrial strategy.  “The new org model is making sure — and this is really at that corporate-level– looking at how we can structure ourselves to be much quicker to market, much more responsive to what customer needs are, and to deliver on those needs very efficiently and quickly,” Hartmann explains.

For the Agriculture and Turf Division, Hartmann says Deere teams will use different approaches to serving customers with large-scale farms in North and South America, plus Australia, compared to mid-size and small growers and producers around the world.  “Whether we are talking about the equipment or technology — what do those corn and soy farmers need most, because that is going to be very different than what a dairy or livestock producer might need,” according to Hartmann, “And certainly very different from what a guy who’s producing oranges in an orchard. So this is going to be looking at that entire lifecycle of the needs of that farmer or producer or rancher.”

The restructuring includes expanding the role of the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, since, Hartmann says, technology is the key to improving customer service before, during, and after the sale. They have a chief technology officer Jamie Hindman who she says will be overseeing the intelligent solutions group and the entire technical staff.

She says the intelligent solutions group had been focused on precision agriculture, but all of the tech and support will now be focused on the entire lifecycle of the product lines from construction and forestry to ag and turf. Deere plans to invest in research and development of new technologies. Hartmann says the company’s “smart, connected” machines will help customers save money, increase productivity, and ultimately make more money.