Economic Development: Valley City and John Deere

Link to KX News.

The John Deere factory in Valley City is holding a groundbreaking Tuesday for its $20 million plant expansion, a 100,000 square-foot addition.

The factory makes air seeders and tillage equipment and has about 325 workers. The company says that up to 100 new jobs are expected with the expansion.

I don't know about you, but for North Dakota, a $20 million plant expansion is not trivial. For newbies, Valley City is in eastern North Dakota, nowhere near the oil patch. 

Considering the large number of available workers in other states and other metropolitan areas, I find it very, very interesting that John Deere is expanding in North Dakota. Speaks volumes.

If interested, one might want to superimpose the three maps: a) where the jobs will be the next few years; b) the right-to-work map; and, c) the electoral map.

By the way, this article might shed some light on why John Deere is expanding in North Dakota: air seeders -- how big will they get?