Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg toured a Washington agricultural business Friday. Gregg met with employees of Bazooka Farmstar and toured the production floor. Gregg met with managing partner Eric Hahn about how the manure applicator manufacturing company has grown from 18 people in 2011 to over 100 now, all in Washington. Gregg said that finding enough employees for jobs in Iowa is a hurdle, “That’s probably the biggest challenge on a state basis is that we’ve got more jobs available than we have people to fill them. The Governor and I had a press conference earlier this week where we highlighted the fact that currently just on the state’s job website, which probably doesn’t capture absolutely everything, there are over 80,000 positions available. And 2.4% unemployment, we’re talking about 40,000 to 45,000 individuals that are unemployed and looking for work. So we want to make sure that we can get those into positions where they have the right skills to do that, and move a rung or two up the ladder, and open up other opportunities for folks who are earlier on in their careers, like to give them that opportunity to be productive and all that, and have the dignity of a paycheck, and all those things.” Bazooka Farmstar works with state programs to have interns and partner with Kirkwood Community College to have skilled employees.

Hahn also explained that Bazooka Farmstar equipment injects liquid manure into fields to capture nitrogen and phosphorous, to prevent runoff and help protect waterways. He said that regulations on practices are state mandated, so different states have different rules. Washington Economic Development Group Director David Collins encouraged Gregg to reach out to other states through the National Governors Association and other such organizations to look at good practices and try to create some more uniform application guidelines.