Just after Christmas and the new year, the celebrating will stop for more than 100 employees of John Deere, as they are slimming their workforce in Iowa.

Iowa serves a major hub for John Deere production, but there have been significant setbacks in 2024 for the big green company, causing them to eliminate a lot of jobs.

How many ,exactly? Well, just in Iowa alone, in 2024, John Deere has eliminated over 1,700 American jobs and trimmed down its production lines.

The reason seems to be the decline in the need for major farming equipment. The big green minds at Deere got together and figured out why this is happening and issued a statement:

“Challenging market conditions continue to result in reduced demand for our equipment with net income down $3 billion in fiscal year 2024. To remain globally competitive, we must continue making workforce adjustments as needed to our manufacturing footprint.”

What in the world is happening out there? The grocery store produce shelves seem to be stocked. Still, there seems to be less and less need for the equipment to produce the goods.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that receipts from major row crops like corn and soybeans will be down another 18 percent in 2024 after a five percent decline last year.

On top of that, the prices for corn, soybeans and wheat will be significantly lower than record and near-record prices in 2022.

John Deere is even offering early retirement to some of its employees, as well. They are taking care of the other 100 plus workers by offering them healthcare for 12 months and transitional assistance pay, which covers 50 percent of their average weekly earnings for up to 52 weeks.

The new layoffs become effective on Jan. 5, 2025.