WATERLOO | John Deere has fired up its $150 million baby. It is a complete modernization of the John Deere Foundry on Westfield Avenue. Three years in the making, it is the latest in more than $1 billion in investments Deere has made over the past decade in its Waterloo operations — the company’s largest manufacturing complex in the world.

“We believe having a foundry provides us a competitive edge,” said Josh Wittenburg, manager of foundry operations in Waterloo.

The project gives Deere “the ability to produce larger castings to match the growth in the size of our tractors,” said Thad Nevitt, factory manager of the Deere Waterloo Works. The company’s industry-leading large row-crop tractors are manufactured in Waterloo.

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