MOLINE, Ill. (AP) - Deere & Co. reported a 58 percent decline in third-quarter earnings Tuesday and announced production cuts in all divisions, including new cutbacks on farm machinery manufacturing to counter a continued slump in the agricultural economy. The equipment manufacturer earned $71.8 million, or 30 cents a share, for the quarter ended July 31, down from $172.4 million, or 72 cents per share, a year ago. The company surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had forecast earnings of 25 cents per share. Deere stock fell $1.02 to $42.35 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). Third-quarter sales were $3.58 billion, down slightly from $3.63 billion last year. The company said in addition to low sales of agricultural equipment, sales of construction and forestry equipment also were down. ``Deere's third-quarter results continued to reflect the general economic slowdown and low farm commodity prices,'' said Robert Lane, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. The company announced a shutdown of large tractor production at its Waterloo, Iowa, plant that could last up to six weeks and said manufacturing of combines, cotton-pickers and other agricultural machines will be cut as well. Deere said its North American agricultural equipment factories could be idled for almost 25 percent of the available days in the last quarter. Deere said it will cut production in its commercial and consumer equipment division by about 40 percent, including a one-month shutdown of the lawn equipment factory in Horicon, Wis. Construction equipment manufacturing is expected to be cut by about a third in the quarter. ``It looks as if they're trying to reduce inventory substantially, and this is always costly,'' said Alexander Blanton, an analyst for Ingalls & Snyder LLC. ``This is what they've got to do.'' Lane said the cutbacks could lower fourth-quarter results. The company expects to break even for the year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had expected the company would earn $1.28 per share for the year, compared with earnings of $2.06 a share for the previous year. For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Deere earned $256.1 million, or $1.08 per share, down from $414.4 million, or $1.75 per share, during the same period last year. Deere is one of the world's largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery, including John Deere tractors. It also manufactures and distributes equipment for construction, forestry and public works and produces a variety of commercial and consumer equipment.