November 9, 2018
We celebrate the agricultural entrepreneurs of North Iowa. Iowa has a long history of innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs who have changed the world with their technologies, products, services, and businesses. In honor of Agricultural Entrepreneurship Week, today we spotlight Bruce and Connie Goddard and the invention of the Bale Storm Processor.
The story of Iowa has been shaped by the men and women working the land; their ingenuity in the face of obstacles has led to new innovations and inventions that are changing the face of agriculture at every level. Bruce and Connie Goddard are agricultural entrepreneurs in the long tradition of hands-on inventors who create new solutions based on their ground-level experience. As the saying goes: Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
For years, Bruce had struggled to bed and feed his cattle manually. Laboring with frozen net wrap wasn’t the answer. He knew there had to be a better way. Bruce has been a farmer and machinist for years; with not a single product on the market that addressed this common problem, he took matters into his own hands and invented the Bale Storm Processor. The Bale Storm Processor is the only rear-attached straw bale processor on the market, and is capable of completely changing the way livestock owners care for their cattle by making this job easier, safer, and more economical. Bruce has been using the Bale Storm Bale Processor on his farm for almost three years. He has saved over 30% on his bedding cost yearly since using the Bale Storm Bale Processor. Bruce feels that the Bale Storm Bale Processor is an essential piece of equipment for any livestock operation, big or small.
Bruce and Connie are dedicated entrepreneurs working to bring their product to a wider market, and help those who would benefit from this new innovation. Bruce and Connie completed the Launch & Grow Your Business course at NIACC, and are currently working in the Startup Factory Program Network through Iowa State University. Bruce was a finalist for the Innovation Award at the NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center’s Entrepreneur Gala in September 2018. The Bale Storm Processor can be seen in action on the Bale Storm website.
Agricultural entrepreneurship is an integral part of Iowa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we’re excited to see how Bruce and Connie Goddard and the Bale Storm Processor make their mark.
