Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Bazooka Farmstar keeps on growing
James Jennings
Jun. 25, 2021 5:00 am
Bazooka Farmstar moved its operations to Washington in 1993, but the story doesn’t begin there.
The company started as two businesses.
“Bazooka was an auger company that started in the 1960s,” Bazooka Farmstar Managing Partner Eric Hahn said. “All they made was grain handling equipment, while Farmstar was a Minnesota-based business that dealt with top spread application solutions for liquid waste.”
The two companies merged in 1976 to create Bazooka Farmstar.
In 1991, Eldon C. Stutsman, Inc., an ag product wholesaler in Hills decided to purchase the newly merged company, Bazooka Farmstar.
Stutsman’s newest business division moved to Washington in 1993 and located in what is now Ace Hardware.
In 2007, the company relocated from a 30,000-square-foot facility to the 110,000-square-foot facility, where they are currently located at 800 E. Seventh St.
“We were a small business in the 1990s and 2000s,” Hahn said. “We were around 20 people when I joined in 2011. We’re at 135 now.”
The business continued to grow and expand.
In 2017, they purchased the former Modine facility, adjacent to Bazooka Farmstar, and they now own the entire block.
“We bought the land around both properties so we have the capacity to expand in the future,” Hahn said. “We’ve built an above-ground tunnel to connect the two buildings to improve our purchased parts flow and increase production efficiency.”
That growth is continuing with a 37,000-square-foot expansion planned on the north side of the facility.
“What’s helped us grow is continuing to diversify our product lines to sell into both the hog and dairy markets,” Hahn said. “We’ve also expanded our dealer network outside of Iowa. When I started, 90 percent of our sales were Iowa-based.”
He added that their dealer network now spans across the Midwest and is growing in the east and out west.
Hahn attributed some of the growth to changing state regulations regarding liquid waste.
“What we do isn’t federally regulated; it’s state regulated,” he said. “In some states, there are not strict rules regarding liquid waste management, which means they can use lower-cost equipment to get rid of liquid manure.
“When contamination issues or manure spills occur, the state gets involved and puts mandates in place that ultimately promotes our equipment.”
He said regulations in other states were not as strict as they are in Iowa, so many farmers were top-applying their liquid waste.
“They didn’t see any value in the nitrogen and phosphorous that is found in liquid manure,” Hahn said. “As everyone becomes more educated and the states get more involved in requiring manure management plans, like Iowa. That’s where we come in.”
He said approximately 90 percent of the company’s revenue comes from their manure handling equipment division.
“We make poo equipment, and we’re proud of it,” he joked. “It’s a messy job, but at the end of the day, it’s something you have to deal with.”
Hahn offered a description of what Bazooka Farmstar does in laymen’s terms.
“Imagine a hog barn, where the hogs are there from baby to finish,” he said. “All the liquid manure is under the barn, and we design, manufacture, and sell equipment that accommodates the entire manure injection process, starting with agitation. The manure underneath the barn separates – the solids are on the bottom and the liquid is on the top – so the process starts with agitation, which is essentially mixing the solids and liquids together.”
The company also sells the equipment that pumps the liquid manure out of the barn, using various engine unit offerings and special hoses they get from their business partners in Europe.
“Think of a large diameter firefighting hose,” Hahn said. “We sell those in six, eight and 10 inches in diameter. It’s a lay-flat hose that’s collapsible and expands when there’s pressure forced through it, in this case, by the engine unit.
“End-users lay this hose from the manure source to the field they are going to apply the manure, which can be anywhere from one, two, or three miles out.”
This lay flat hose is stored and transported from job site to job site using a hose reel that is typically pulled behind a tractor.
The company offers a full line-up of hose reels that hold various capacities of hose, some of which, will hold up to three miles.
The lay flat hose that has been laid out from the manure source to the field, is then connected to a toolbar, sending the liquid manure evenly through the toolbar’s injection units through pressure created by the engine units.
Hahn said that the manure injection is similar to the process of injecting nitrogen or anhydrous into a field.
“It’s about agitation, engine units, hose, hose reels and toolbars – those components, in a variety of sizes and shapes for different terrain in different areas,” Hahn said. “A smaller farmer might need a smaller engine. A bigger area guy may need a bigger engine. We change our specifications based on the size of the operation.”
He added that they also provide equipment to oil, gas and mining operations, because they use it for moving water.
Bazooka Farmstar continues to try to expand its product line.
“We’re trying to diversify our product for our dealers to offer all the tools they need to do liquid waste transferring,” Hahn said. “We used to just offer dragline equipment. Now, we’re getting into different components of the hog and dairy world, such as agitation.
“They are different product lines that allow for different revenue streams.”
He said that the goal is to give their dealers one-stop shopping to buy all of their equipment from Bazooka Farmstar rather than having to buy different parts from different companies.
There’s still plenty of growth opportunity for the company.
“The equipment we sell isn’t necessarily known all over the United States yet,” Hahn said.
That was evidenced during an early June visit by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.
“I saw something about this plant on television, so I thought when I go to Washington County, I ought to go to this place,” Grassley said during that visit. “I see a lot of manure injection systems where I live in Butler and Grundy counties. They’re big, but not this big. So, you’re making something that I didn’t know existed.”
Hahn said that the Bazooka Farmstar continues to look for areas to grow and improve.
“We’re the only liquid waste company that does drag line that offers a dealer network,” Hahn said. “Some of our growth is from allowing our dealers to provide service. Another piece of it is we invest heavily in our engineering team to help create new products.
“It’s about creating new products and having high quality service from the dealers.”
A tractor pulls a Bazooka Farmstar Titan Series toolbar, injecting liquid waste into the field. (Courtesy Bazooka Farmstar)
The Wolverine Series agitation boat is equipped with two high-powered, articulating propellers that circulate massive amounts of liquid at a high velocity, keeping solids in suspension throughout the agitation process. (Courtesy Bazooka Farmstar)
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (left) gets a tour of the Bazooka Farmstar facility in Washington from Managing Partner Eric Hahn on June 2. (Union file photo)
Feeder legs wait to be painted at a painting station at Bazooka Farmstar. (Gazette file photo)