A top official in the City of Clarion says Deere and Company’s decision to close a site where self-propelled crop sprayers have been made for 79 years is disappointing. Clint Middleton has lived in Clarion for 27 years and has been the city administrator since 2019.
Ray Hagie invented the first self-propelled crop sprayer in 1947 and Deere acquired Hagie Manufacturing in Clarion six years ago.
According to Wright County Economic Development, the Clarion plant employs about 300 when it’s operating at full capacity. Middleton says he and other Clarion officials have been working with state and regional partners to start planning for the future –and hopefully find a buyer for the facilities when they’re closed in three years.
Middleton has reached out to local managers of the Clarion plant to arrange a meeting, too, to get more information on the buildings.
Middleton says Clarion’s largest employers are the Iowa Specialty Hospital and Hagie Manufacturing, which Deere acquired in 2020. There are two large buildings on the Hagie campus in Clarion. One of the buildings dates back to the 1950s and Middleton says it’s had several renovations and additions. The other was a warehouse built by Meredith Corporation in the 1980s that Hagie Manufacturing bought in 2008. Middleton says those are two good spaces to show prospective businesses.
Middleton says a private street separates the two facilities, so the buildings could be sold to different companies. Deere plans to move production of self-propelled crop sprayers from Clarion to Louisiana and the Clarion plant will be shut down by the end of October 2029. Earlier this week Deere also announced plans to shift production of equipment that cuts and bales hay from its facility in Ottumwa to Des Moines. The John Deere plant in Ottumwa has been operating since 1911. It will be closed in the fall of 2028 when the transition is completed.
