Deere & Co. ended fiscal 2009 in profitable territory against the backdrop of the global economic slowdown and the company’s own biggest single-year drop in equipment sales.

In announcing earnings Wednesday, the Moline-based Deere reported a net income of $873.5 million, or $2.06 per share, for the year ended Oct. 31. That compared with profits last year of $2.053 billion, or $4.70 per share.

For the fourth quarter, also ended Oct. 31, Deere said it lost $222.8 million, or 53 cents per share, which compared with a net income of

$345 million, or 81 cents per share, for the same period last year.

With the demand down for its farm, construction, forestry and turf equipment, worldwide sales and revenues slid 28 percent to $5.334 billion for the quarter. For the full year, sales and revenues were down 19 percent to $23.112 billion.

Susan Karlix, Deere’s manager of investor communications, told analysts in a conference call that the “solidly profitable year” came as Deere faced “challenging market conditions affecting virtually every one of the company’s major businesses and major markets.”

But it also was “a year of significant achievement in many ways,” she said, adding that “2009, for example, saw the biggest single year sales decline in company history — over $5 billion. Yet our net income of just under $900 million was the eighth-highest ever.”

Net sales of equipment operations were $20.756 billion for the year, down from $25.803 billion a year ago.

“It’s really showing that the work the company and all the employees have done to be more effective, efficient and cut costs is working,” Deere spokesman Ken Golden said.

The earnings report sent Deere’s shares up $1.41 to a new 52-week high of $53.70 on the New York Stock Exchange.

It was a difficult year as Deere was forced to lay off hundreds of workers at its Midwest manufacturing plants to match production of its equipment with retail demand. Although 452 Deere employees in Ottumwa, Iowa, were called back last month, the 367 hourly employees laid off in September at East Moline Harvester Works remain out of work.

Samuel Allen, who took over Deere’s helm Aug. 1, said in a news release that the company’s ability to remain on a profitable course is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of  employees, dealers and suppliers.

“All our businesses are benefiting from the consistent execution of plans to keep a tight rein on costs and inventories,” he said.

Deere said its fourth quarter loss included charges for a write-down in the value of assets and voluntary employee-separation expenses related to the company’s consolidation of its agriculture and turf divisions earlier this year. Without the unusual items, Deere would have earned $99 million, or 23 cents per share, in the quarter.

Looking ahead, Deere said it now predicts sales to be nearly flat — down 1 percent — in fiscal 2010. It also projects a 10-percent decline in sales for the first quarter compared to last year.

For the next fiscal year, the company now is predicting $900 million in profits — about even with fiscal 2009.

The company expects sales of farm and turf equipment to be down about 4 percent for full-year 2010, while industry sales of farm equipment are expected to be down 10 percent.

Golden said the company will continue its focus on efficiency and effectiveness. “There will be things discovered that we could probably cut or postpone during the tough economic conditions,” he said.

Karlix said cash receipts and commodity prices are expected to remain at healthy levels, although below their prior peaks. “Despite the positive fundamentals, farmers follow the daily news and are as concerned as anyone about the general economy,” she said.

Loyd Brown, the president of Hertz Farm Management, a Nevada, Iowa-based farm management company, said he expects some recovery in the livestock industry, which saw the biggest decline this year. “I don’t see the economy being robust in 2010 either for the farmer or the general economy, but I do see some recovery,” he said.

Hertz Farm Management manages 2,000 farms with more than 480,000 acres, mostly in the Corn Belt, and handles farm sales, real estate auctions and acquisitions across the Midwest and Colorado.

He added that Deere and the management team “should be complimented for having as good as year as they did given what has gone on in the general economy and the ag economy.”

Citing projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Brown said net farm income was expected to be down 35 percent from last year’s record level and down from the 10-year average.

“There are several positive things happening in the ag sector,” Brown said, pointing to ethanol returning to profitable levels, good commodity prices, excellent crop yields and fertilizer costs being half of what they were a year ago. “But it will be a year or two before John Deere can get back to the record level of sales they had in 2008 and before.”