Deere's Waterloo operations manufacture the company's large row-crop tractors, which company officials have cited as contributing mightily to Deere's overall performance of late.

"It shows ag is going well. We've got a lot of good work ahead of us," Jungen said.

The company had a record $2.8 billion in earnings for fiscal 2011, shattering its annual earnings record three quarters into the year. Deere reeled off five consecutive years of record earnings in 1993-98 and again from 2003-08, and now seems poised on the cusp of another run, given current projections.

The union-wage hiring numbers dovetail with overall employment numbers the company has cited.

Total Deere Waterloo employment has now topped 6,000 workers, Thad Nevitt, factory manager at the Deere Waterloo Works, said in January.

That's believed to be Deere's highest total employment in about 15 years. It had hovered at about 5,000 the past several years.

Employment had dropped to a 30-year low of 4,400 after two years of cutbacks from 1998-2000. The current employment number represents a 42 percent increase from that time.

Over that same period Deere also has invested more that $1 billion in its Waterloo operations, revamping production lines and upgrading equipment at several of its plants in town. Deere's Waterloo plants make up the company's largest manufacturing complex in North America.

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