“You can see that pile of corn cobs from miles away as you’re coming down (Highway) 14,” Meggers said.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics as Green Products ___ Luke Schryver, a Marshalltown native and MHS graduate, along with his cousins, sisters Jill Schryver and Jami Rolston (both of whom serve as associate vice presidents) shared their perspectives on what makes the company special as well as the challenges they face in recruiting quality employees to rural Iowa. It was noted that in the entire United States, there are only two other facilities still in the corn cob processing business — one near Independence and another in Indiana.

“It’s just fascinating because it’s this little world that nobody knows exists,” Luke Schryver said. “The interesting part for the future is (that) obviously if you think about it from the macro perspective of Iowa, there’s lots of people in the cellulosic ethanol (business) as people have tried to utilize the crop residues that are left on the field, but it’s a real sticky wicket. It has never paid for itself when you go look at (it). The technology exists theoretically, but it slows down harvest dramatically. It’s unreliable, all these things, right? It’s fascinating to think about the future because you’re right. You’re relying on people who still shell corn.”

Schryver added that there aren’t many Green branded final products, but their materials go into everything from animal health and bedding products to absorbents, pesticides and herbicides.

Green Products Vice President of Business Development Luke Schryver, left, showed Meggers and Naig some of the company’s creations made from repurposed corn cobs during the visit on Thursday.

“Strategically, you don’t want all your eggs in one basket,” he said.

Naig asked Schryver if the company receives the cobs for free from farmers, to which he jokingly replied “that would be amazing” and instead said it was more like a bidding war. Schryver added that Green works closely with Iowa State University’s bioreactor research program.

Later in the conversation, Schryver mentioned the rise of automation in the company’s operations due in large part to the lack of available workers.

“It’s not ‘Oh, I can now make these jobs redundant.’ It’s ‘There are no people to fill these jobs. I must buy the robot,'” Schryver said.

Wages for hourly positions, he added, have jumped 30 to 50 percent since the pandemic with a compression issue between entry and top level jobs. Jill Schryver said the company does its best to keep its benefits competitive, but that can also get expensive for a smaller operation as opposed to a larger corporate employer. Rolston noted that they’ve had to cast a wider net in hiring truckers outside of just the immediate area and the state of Iowa.

Luke Schryver said the company is lucky in that it works in a highly specialized field without a lot of competition, but he sometimes finds himself wondering what they could achieve if they were able to hire more workers.

“If we implemented a minimum wage of $100,000, yes, we could probably staff everything, but that’s not particularly realistic. But even the 10, 15 or 20 percent wage increases, that doesn’t move the needle. If you look at the unemployment statistics, everyone who wants to work is working,” he said. “You’ve gotta pull somebody out of a job and convince them to come somewhere else, and that works for some people. They come, and (then) they get a quarter more offer down the road. So it is what it is.”

At one point, Schryver commented on the lack of people to fill positions — not necessarily great or even good employees, but those who are willing to show up and do the job they’re hired to complete. Meggers, who grew up in the small Tama County community of Buckingham and now resides in Grundy Center, spoke about efforts to direct more of the state’s economic development funds and tax credits to rural areas as opposed to places like the Des Moines metro and the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor, which are already experiencing rapid growth.

“This is my third year down there (in the Legislature), but I coined the phrase ‘Rural bleed.’ It seems like we’re constantly taking from rural Iowa, giving it to the urban areas and we’re getting nothing in return except for people leaving,” he said. “So our Main Streets are hurt, our businesses, school districts (with) consolidations, and so we’ve gotta do something.”

Naig commented that the biggest concerns he hears during conversations about promoting rural economic development are a lack of access to childcare and affordable housing, and Meggers added that builders in places like Grundy Center hesitate to construct $150,000 to $200,000 homes due to the high cost of materials and the fact that “the square footage is gonna be next to nothing.”

The secretary spoke of the need for townhouse style units even in smaller communities as older residents age out of larger homes, and Rolston, who lives on a farm six miles from her employer and is sending her kids to BCLUW schools, also lamented a general lack of agricultural involvement compared to when she was growing up here.

“Even in an area where it’s all about ag, that family farm used to really be the backbone of this area, and that’s a struggle,” she said.

Many modern farmers, Naig replied, are diversifying their work to go beyond simply planting, harvesting and/or raising livestock, but he felt it hadn’t been “fully maximized” yet. As the conversation wound down, the secretary marveled at the fact that two iconic, industry leading agricultural businesses — Green and Ritchie Industries, which manufactures automatic waterers for livestock — are both headquartered in Conrad.

“It’s just an interesting convergence of y’all, and that’s a great thing,” he said.

Green Products Safety and Human Resources Director Jeff Martin, who also serves as the mayor of Conrad, noted the community’s ongoing growth and the upcoming groundbreaking on a new UnityPoint Health clinic in town along with a Dollar General coming soon.

“We need to get the basics here,” Meggers said.

Luke Schryver told Naig he was welcome to return any time.

“We’ll be here grinding cobs and driving trucks,” he said, which the secretary felt needed to be on a t-shirt.

Before he departed, Naig fielded a few questions from the T-R, reflecting on his inaugural stop at Green Products.

“I know about the company and what they do here, but I’ve never had the chance to visit. So (I’m) very impressed,” he said. “We love value-added agriculture here, so these guys are taking what could be a waste stream as in corn cobs from the seed industry and turning it into something that’s incredibly high value. Of course, we’re capturing that value in the state of Iowa when that happens here. I love that because that story gets told over and over again of how we add value to ag, and of course, the challenges we talked about are ‘What’s it like to do business in rural Iowa?’ What are the challenges around workforce and cost of capital and those types of things, so it’s good to have a good discussion with the team.”

Recruiting individuals and families to live, work and play in rural Iowa, Naig said, requires a combination of great schools, strong infrastructure, housing, childcare and opportunities along with a favorable business and regulatory climate.

“I think that one of the great advantages we have over so many other places is, one, the low cost of living in the state of Iowa, our low taxes. That’s gonna be something that we can continue to use to recruit businesses and families here,” he said. “And I think the other is it’s a good place to grow up and raise a family, and we can recruit and see an inflow of folks like that.”

The topic at the forefront of the national discussion at the moment, tariffs, didn’t come up during the event at Green Products on Thursday afternoon, but Naig felt Wednesday’s announcements were unsurprising considering President Donald Trump’s longstanding position that they will help to “level the playing field” and benefit American companies.

“I think that tariffs can be used, certainly in the short term, to address trade barriers and to get a better deal for the U.S. In the long run, of course, tariffs, and retaliatory tariffs in particular, can have a negative impact on ag,” Naig said. “And I would stress this that ag margins are tight. Agriculture could experience an increase in input costs and also see a decline in commodity prices. What I continue to hear from people is (that) if this can successfully be leveraged into better market access or fairer market access, then it may be worth some short term pain for long term gain. But I think the question is all about how much of an impact does that have?”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has offered financial assistance for farmers who are impacted by fallout from the tariffs.

“Farmers don’t want aid. They want markets, but I was encouraged that they are preparing, that they would be ready to provide that if needed,” Naig said.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.