Deere to Expand Dealership Network in India

Business Standard

US-based agriculture farm equipment and tractor manufacturer John Deere today said it was looking to expand its dealership network in the country, from the existing 380 to over 400 within a year.

"We are looking to expand our dealership network in the country and shall add up, say, close to 50 dealers within a span of one year, taking the tally of total dealers from the existing 380 to between 420-430", Deputy General Manager Marketing Services John Deere, Mahesh Boolchandani said here.

"The company sold 25,000 tractors in the country last year, and exported around 13,000 units from India to around 68 countries including US and South America", he said.
   
The company with 7.34 per cent domestic market share, also launched two new tractor models here, 5036C and 5041C- of 35 horse power(hp) and 41 hp respectively.
    
Quoting Tractor Manufacturing Association of India figures,Director Sales and Marketing, John Deere, Ravi Menon said, "4.14 lakh tractors are sold annually in the country, of which 31 to 40 hp models account for highest sales in the segment."
   
"With the launch of these two new models we are targetting a larger domestic market share", he added.
   
The company, which manufactures eleven models of tractors at its facility in Pune has installed annual capacity of 60,000 units.
   
John Deere also forayed into manufacturing of micro irrigation systems recently, for which it has set up a facility at Vadodara in Gujarat.
   
"We have set up a micro irrigation systems manufacturing facility at Vadodara on a 5 acre plot, and presently are selling our range of products only in Gujarat," Boolchandani said.
   
"We have a total business volume of $2 million at the Vadodara facility," he said. The company intends to start selling it's micro-irrigation range of products in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu soon.

Ohio Farmers Laud Livestock Care Accord

The Norwalk Reflector

As the saying goes, there are two things people don't like to watch being made: laws and sausage.

Ohio voters will be spared both this year, as a national animal rights group and the Ohio Farm Bureau reached an agreement Wednesday that will avoid a face-off and keep a ballot issue on livestock care off the November ballot.

For Ohio farmers like Jeff Schwab, whose three farms in Butler County breed and sell more than 17,000 hogs a year, this means they'll have years to change their practices instead of potentially only months if the threatened initiative passed.

"Instead of basing it totally on emotion, we'll be basing it on science," Schwab said.

Wednesday's deal follows last year's constitutional amendment creating the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, which farm groups lobbied hard for. It was an open attempt to prevent the Humane Society of the United States from pushing a tougher measure this year that farmers feared would drive them out of business.

HSUS officials say they have the half-million signatures needed for that effort, which would prohibit confining farm animals so they can't turn around, lie down, stand up or fully extend their limbs. Similar measures have succeeded in states such as California, Michigan and Florida.

Both sides are claiming victory in the compromise.

"One of animal agriculture's most vocal critics has agreed that the Livestock Care Standards Board is the proper authority to handle difficult questions about farm animal care," said Jack Fisher, Farm Bureau executive vice president.

Wednesday's agreement, shepherded by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, included a number of recommendations for the livestock board.

They include a ban on veal crates by 2017; a ban on new pig gestation crates and a 15-year deadline to do away with such existing practices; a moratorium on permits for new battery cages for egg-laying hens; and a ban on the transport of downer cows.

Other agreements include the enactment of legislation toughening penalties on cockfighting and so-called puppy mills, and a ban on exotic animals.

"This agreement moves us forward on all of the components of the proposed ballot measure as well as other important advances for animals, too," said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO.

"We were confident in our ability to prevail, but not certain, and I think the Farm Bureau had the same take," he said.

Farm Bureau officials said the deal will leave the livestock industry "less vulnerable to emotional video used to sway public opinion on farm animal care. Farmers, their organizations and allies will not be forced into a multi-million dollar media battle."

Food Safety a Top Issue for Agriculture Candidates

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Gary Black and Darwin Carter have a rough row to hoe: explaining to Republicans in metro Atlanta not only why they should vote for them but why they should care.

Black and Carter are battling to be the GOP nominee for agriculture commissioner on the November ballot against J.B. Powell, the sole Democrat vying for the spot. When the office was created in 1874, most residents of the Peach State knew it was an important job, but now with about the half the GOP primary voters in suburban Atlanta, fewer and fewer interested parties know why they should be interested, the men said.

One reason is pure economics. Agriculture and its related industries and businesses -- much of which are regulated by the commissioner -- have a $65 billion impact on the state's $786 billion economy, according to the University of Georgia's Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development.

The other is that the commissioner regulates a lot more things than agriculture: He or she is responsible for calibrating gasoline pumps, regulating pest control companies and, most importantly, inspecting food processing plants.

"It really is the Georgia Department of Agriculture and consumer affairs," said Carter of Jesup in South Georgia. "Many people do not understand that. Many people think it is just agriculture and it has nothing to do with me."

Last year, more than 700 people around the nation were sickened from salmonella after the department's inspectors overlooked sanitation violations at a peanut butter plant in Blakely in southwest Georgia. (A Texas plant belonging to the same company also was investigated in the outbreak.) Nine deaths were linked to the salmonella outbreak. Peanut Corp. of America declared bankruptcy after the outbreak.

"It's an important job," said Tony Carbo, a lobbyist for the nonprofit Food and Water Watch. "At the plant in Georgia, they obviously missed several key indicators such as dead vermin. ... Georgians and the rest of the consumers in the country are relying on the Georgia Department of Agriculture to do effective inspections."

Whoever ends up as the next commissioner will be replacing a Georgia political legend, Tommy Irvin, who has ruled the Agriculture Department since 1969. The department, which both regulates and promotes agricultural interests, will touch most Georgians in one way or another.

Both Black and Carter say they will focus on food safety if elected commissioner.

"If we don't have safe foods, we won't have strong farms," said Black of Commerce in northeast Georgia, who headed the Georgia Agribusiness Council -- a kind of chamber of commerce for agriculture -- for 21 years. He resigned to qualify for the commissioner race. "Folks in agriculture are champions of food safety because when the system is compromised, the public loses confidence in the market."

Black said that he would push for improvements in training for inspectors -- although Carbo said that the Georgia department actually had a good overall safety record -- and improve accountability up the chain of command. Carter said food safety would be his highest priority.

They also both emphasized expanding Georgia's agricultural market internationally would be the second pillar of their administration. The state has three ports -- including the barge port at Bainbridge, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico via the Apalachicola River -- and Colonel's Island at Brunswick is a major hub for agricultural exports. A recent article in the Atlantic magazine contended agriculture would eventually replace oil as the top commodity because arable land is becoming scarcer worldwide.

Carter said he worked eight years in the Reagan administration heading up international affairs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said he still maintains many of the international contacts he made in that job and later as a consultant in Africa. "That gave me, a South Georgia farmer, an international perspective and made me a household name in the United Nations for years," he said. "I want to see those Georgia seaports active with our agriculture products going out rather than Chinese, Chilean or Guatemalan products coming in."

Black said he hoped that he would be able to work with the next governor to be a part of international trade missions. "I want agriculture to be represented wherever Georgia goes on a trade mission because it is such an important component of what we do," he said.

He noted that the state's name had not only ties to King George but even longer ones to those who work the earth. George comes from the ancient Greek, Georgios.

"It means, ‘A farmer,' " Black said.

Deere to Build 500-Job Center in Olathe

Kansas City Star

John Deere today announced it has given the green light to build a marketing and sales center in northwest Olathe that will house up to 500 employees.

No new jobs are immediately expected to be created since the project essentially involves shifting workers from a Lenexa location.

The 126,150-square-foot building will be constructed in the Corporate Ridge Office Park, near K10 and Ridgeview Road.

The employees will provide support and service to Deere sales branches and dealerships in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The company, which currently has operations in Lenexa, proposed building this facility several years ago.

The economic downturn prompted Deere to push the construction plan to the backburner. Now, construction is scheduled to begin in June, with completed pegged for August 2011.

John Deere's Gator 825i can Really Gallop

Orlando Sentinel

For years, the unofficial work vehicle of Central Florida has been the John Deere Gator, given our heavy concentration of golf courses, nurseries, ball fields and other labor-intensive outdoor facilities.

You've seen them, but perhaps overlooked them, given their industrial nature. Being a Deere, they are, of course, usually green and yellow, but a lot of them I notice are pretty much brown. Dirt, dust and rust is how they often look after decades on duty.

For 2011, though, Deere wants to change that. Oh, sure, this next generation of Gators will still be the draft horses they always have been, especially the models powered by the three-cylinder Yanmar diesel engine, or the three-cylinder Kawasaki.

But there's a new model, the 825i, that Deere hopes to establish as the playboy of industrial utility vehicles. It's powered by a 50-horsepower, three-cylinder automobile engine, manufactured by Chery, the Chinese automaker that, for years, has been trying to find a way to bring its own vehicles to the U.S. market. Former Orlando resident Malcolm Bricklin, the serial entrepreneur who imported the Yugo, struck a deal to import Chery cars, but it ended in tears and lawsuits. Another deal with Chrysler to bring Chery to America fell through. But here Chery is, under the hood of a Gator.

I got a chance to test a Gator 825i, and while this little Chery engine might not be much fun in their Chinese microcars, in the Gator, it flies. The CVT (continuously variable transmission) works like an automatic, so punch the throttle and you go – right up to a top speed of 44 mph. Which might not sound like much, but 44 mph on tight, twisting trails through the woods is fast – and thanks to the Gator's independent suspension, it rides so smoothly that you'll probably try to test that 44 mph top speed.

"Press the gas, and make monotony eat dust!" says Deere in its hyperbolic press materials. But it's true – as a legitimate cross between a Jeep Wrangler and a conventional ATV, this would be my absolute, ultimate choice for blasting through the trails in the Ocala National Forest.

Still, with this power and top speed, Deere expects the Gator 825i will be its best seller even among industrial customers. And, oddly, a company spokesman says they have, as yet, no way to govern that top speed down to, say, 25 mph. As a site foreman, I'd be a little nervous tossing the keys to an 825i to an 18-year-old day worker – this thing is quick. The Gator with the 25-horsepower Yanmar diesel may not be fun, but it won't get you in trouble.

Deere dealers should have the new Gator 825i in stock shortly. For residents of The Villages, here are the answers to the two questions you have: Price starts at around $12,000, and no, I don't know if the Gator 825i is legal for all those golf cart-only roads you have in that retirement community. But if you want to one-up your neighbor's new electric, this is the hot ticket.

And then there was one

Speaking of electric power, on Thursday the city of Orlando unveiled the first public electric charging station to be installed as part of the ChargePoint America program. It is one out of nine cities that have been chosen to be a part a $37 million program that will install 300 charging stations for electric vehicles.

This first station was installed at City Hall, right by the "media parking" area, presumably since someone figures news-media members are so forward-thinking that we'll all be driving electric cars any day now. Good luck with that. The other eight cities that are part of the program: Austin, Texas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Bellevue/Redmond, Wash.; and Washington, D.C.

For reasons I can't quite explain, Orlando is at the forefront of alternative power initiatives, be it electricity, hydrogen or ethanol. Good for us, I think.

Iowa Plant gets $100 Million Deere Investment

Bloomberg / Business Week

MOLINE, Ill.

Deere & Co. has announced it will invest about $100 million to modernize the John Deere Foundry in Waterloo, Iowa.

According to Deere, the modernization work will take place over the next 4 to 5 years. The project will allow the heavy equipment maker to improve manufacturing capacity and flexibility.

According to Deere executive David Everitt, the integrated approach in the design and manufacturing of large row crop and four-wheeled-drive tractors gives the company a competitive advantage.

Wednesday's announcement by Moline, Ill.-based Deere was made in conjunction with the Iowa Department of Economic Development. The department agreed to provide tax incentives to Deere to retain the Waterloo Foundry jobs in Iowa.

Deere is the world's largest maker of agricultural equipment. It also makes construction, forestry and landscaping equipment, such as backhoes, excavators, riding mowers and leaf blowers.

Tax Breaks Save 300 Deere Jobs

WCF Courier

DES MOINES --- The state of Iowa saved nearly 300 John Deere jobs in Waterloo last week when it granted state tax credits for a massive company reinvestment in its Waterloo Foundry, according to documents Deere filed with the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Deere filed the documents in application for the tax credits, approved by the Iowa Department of Economic Development board.

Deere will get $15 million in tax credits and indirect financing from the state of Iowa, as it invests $90 million in modernizing its Waterloo Works Foundry over the next four years. A company press release issued last week placed the investment at $100 million.

In the process, 60 salaried positions and 235 hourly positions in Waterloo were retained. Jobs performed by those employees would have been outsourced, had an agreement not been reached, according to the documents.

Deere also noted in its application for tax credits with IDED that the Waterloo Works Foundry buys more than $82 million in material, supplies and services from Iowa suppliers.

"If the Foundry's operations were outsourced, most, if not all, of these materials, supplies and services would not be purchased in Iowa," the company wrote in its application.

In going forward with the update project in Waterloo, Deere will get a $9 million investment tax credit and a $6 million Doubled Research Activities Credit.

The project's time line is as follows: A new mold line and core processes is scheduled for completion in 2012; new blast and auto grinding processes, completed in 2013; and infrastructure and office renovation, completed in 2014.

Modernizing the Waterloo Foundry, which was built in 1972, was necessary, as "many of the processes are nearing obsolescence," Deere noted in its filing with the state.

According to the documents, the company was not considering moving its foundry operations outside of Iowa if it did not secure the tax credits.

"The objective of the project is to decide whether John Deere should manufacture the casting internally in Waterloo or outsource the production to third-party suppliers," the company said in its application. "If the casting business is outsourced, the vast majority of casting volume will go to suppliers outside the U.S.

"The company is not considering internal manufacturing of these castings in any other state. This project is simply a make vs. buy decision."

According to documents Deere supplied to IDED, at the end of 2009, Deere listed 12,718 workers in Iowa, including 5,664 workers at its Waterloo Works. Other Deere manufacturing plants in the state are in Davenport, 1,070 employees; Dubuque 1,778; Des Moines Works in Ankeny, 1,480; and Ottumwa, 1,026. The company also has John Deere Credit in Johnston, 1,072 workers, and Intelligent Solutions Group in Urbandale, 272, as well as 356 other employees located across the state.

Corn Rises on Pickup in Demand

Associated Press

Corn prices rose Thursday after a monthly Department of Agriculture report showed demand for the crop continued to grow while supplies dwindled.

Corn for July delivery is up 5 cents at $3.4325 a bushel.

John Sanow, an analyst with Telvent DTN in Omaha, Neb., said the USDA's report is proof that demand is strong for corn, particularly from ethanol producers.

The USDA raised its projection for ethanol use based on continued record pace of production of the fuel. While demand for corn rose, supplies fell. The USDA reduced its estimate for ending stocks from the 2009-2010 season.

However, the jump in corn prices could be temporary.

"We still have issues working against us," Sanow said, including what appears to be a sizable crop currently growing. When corn that was planted this spring is harvested in the fall and winter, it could significantly bolster supply and weaken prices.

It would likely take a major weather event destroying corn plants to drive prices to the $4 a bushel level, Sanow said. Corn hasn't traded above $4 a bushel since early January.

Deere Plant Finishes 500,000th Combine

WCF Courier

 

EAST MOLINE, Ill. - More than 80 years after introducing its first combine, John Deere Harvester Works has rolled its half-millionth self-propelled combine off the assembly line in East Moline.

The machine - a 9870 model - will be on display all summer at the John Deere Pavilion in downtown Moline. It also will make an appearance at the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 31-Sept. 2 in Boone.

"Reaching 500,000 self-propelled combines is a significant milestone for us," said Dennis Muszalski, Harvester Works' factory manager.

Muszalski added that the milestone "celebrates generations of dedicated employees who have been part of Harvester Works and part of the greater Quad-Cities community."

On May 19, the combine was presented to its new owner, Greg Briggs of Cisco, Ill., as part of the John Deere Gold Key program. The program provides customers with an exclusive tour of the factory and the opportunity to be the first to start their own machine on the line. Briggs will take ownership of the combine this fall after Deere displays it. Gold Key owners receive special plaques.

The factory first began producing binders in 1910, just two years before Deere broke ground on the current John Deere Harvester Works. The factory initially manufactured horse-drawn grain binders, mowers, rakes and corn binders.

In 1927, Deere introduced its first combine - uniting harvesting and threshing in one operation. Twenty years later, John Deere manufactured the company's first self-propelled combine.

The East Moline facility manufactures four combine models as well as a complete line of front end equipment. It employs about 2,400 people - including employees at the John Deere Product Development Center in Silvis, Ill.

Ag Highlighted in New Cancer Report

Journal Star

On Thursday, May 6, the President's Cancer Panel released the results of its two- year investigation into "the impact of environmental factors on cancer risk." The 240-page report did not mince words: "The Nation still has much work to identify... and eliminate carcinogens... from our workplaces, schools, and homes."

The examination focused on key areas such as "...industrial, occupational, and agricultural exposures as well as exposures related to medical practice, military activities, modern lifestyles and natural causes."

The panel, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008, offered its overarching point in one hammer blow: "[T]he true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated." A sampling of facts gleaned from the report (http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp.htm) show:

-Although cancer incidence and deaths are falling, 41 out of every 100 Americans "will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and about 21 percent will die from cancers."

-Some cancers, "including some most common among children," continue to increase "for unexplained reasons."

-"The entire U.S. population is exposed on a daily basis to numerous agricultural chemicals. Many of these chemicals are known or suspected of having either carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting properties."

-"Chemical exposure levels of agricultural families (and in some cases, other rural residents) tend to be higher than the general population... [T]hese substances often are introduced into the home on shoes and clothing, and when work clothes are washed with other family laundry."

-"Pesticide levels in carpet dust in the homes of agricultural workers and non-farming families can be 10- to 200-fold higher than levels in the air outside the same home, increasing exposure risk to children who... crawl and play directly on the carpet."

-The Agriculture Health Study that now tracks 89,000 men, women and children in the "agricultural population shows that "Farmers and pesticide applicators have significantly higher prostate cancer risk, and female spouses have a significantly higher incidence of melanoma."

-"Nearly 1,400 pesticides have been registered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Approximately 40 chemicals classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as known, probable, or possible human carcinogens, are used in EPA-registered pesticides now on the market."

-"An average of 18 new pesticides are introduced every year. In the aggregate, the registered pesticides contain nearly 900 active ingredients, many of which are toxic. Many of the inert ingredients in pesticides also are toxic, but are not required to be tested."

None of these facts, the report makes clear, are meant to condemn our chemical-dependent lifestyles. Instead, it "urges" the President to "use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air..."

At the same time, "[I]ndividual small actions can drastically reduce the number and levels of environmental contaminants," the panel notes. It suggests simple, mostly cheap actions like filtering tap water, storing and microwaving food in glass containers, removing shoes before entering the home and washing "work clothes separately from other family laundry."

And, it recommends, "...choosing, to the extent possible, food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and washing conventionally grown produce to remove residues. Similarly... eating free-range meat raised without medications if it is available."

Want to debate those latter panel suggestions? Great, get the facts and get going because cancer doesn't care if you're a farmer or a factory worker, a man or a woman, a Republican or Democrat. Nor should we.

We should, however, agree that we can- as the panel urges-"strongly support environmental cancer research and measures that will reduce or remove from the environment toxins that are known or suspected carcinogens or endocrine-disrupting chemicals."