Deere & Co, the world's largest agricultural equipment manufacturer, unveiled yet more US lay-offs as it unveiled a further steep drop in tractor sales.

Deere said that it would place 367 staff at its main combine-making plant, near the group's Illinois headquarters, on "indefinite layoff" as of September 21.

The cuts, which the group blamed on "reduced market demand for the factory's products", will take to at least 1,800 the number of staff whose positions have been axed or mothballed during a downturn Deere expects to depress sales by 21% this year.

Besides the 1,000 or so hourly workers affected, 800 salaried employees agreed redundancy under a divisional merger strategy announced in April.

However, the group is expanding in Russia, unveiling two weeks ago $125m plans for a tractor factory near Moscow.

Tractor sales slip 

Ironically, the jobs announcement came as the group unveiled buoyant North American trade in combines in August. While declining to reveal a figure, Deere said that growth in harvester sales beat the industry average of 17%.

However, the group's decline in tractor sales was steeper than rival manufacturers', hitting "double digits" for all models, including the most powferful vehicles for which the industry as a whole suffered a decline of only 3%.

In Europe, aggregate sales of tractors and combines suffered a double-digit decline.

Deere made both jobs and sales announcement after the close of New York trade on Thursday, where its shares ended up $0.02 at $43.03.