Rotarians Hear About Bayer in Grinnell
GRINNELL, Iowa (Oct. 27, 2021) – Most of us associate the name “Bayer” with the drug aspirin But did you know that The Bayer Group is a life science company with three divisions – pharmaceuticals, consumer health, and crop science?
In Grinnell, Bayer has a seed production operation that used to be DeKalb and then Monsanto and is now part of its crop science division. The plant’s production manager Matt Moyer spoke to the Rotary Club at its weekly meeting on Tues., Oct. 26.
Moyer, a 2009 GHS and an ISU alum, heads a plant of about 68 full-time employees and 28 contractors whose job is to transform corn grown by its farmer-growers on 15,000 acres into 1.5 million bags each containing 80,000 seed corn ready for commercial use. Bayer has some 20 farmers in Grinnell growing seed corn on about 4,000 acres. Other seed corn growing farms are in Oelwein, Conrad, Bondurat, and Waterloo.
Moyer spoke of how Bayer and its employees are very much part of the local community, specifically through the plant’s emphases on safety, sustainability and community outreach.
A safety rule is “the right tool for the right job” that even encourages employees to bring home tools from work if they can use these at home.
On sustainability, Bayer encourages its farmer-growers to practice sustainable farming practices and gives monetary awards to those who do so. Bayer maintains 3.5 acres of natural prairie and a Monarch Butterfly Tent on its property.
In community outreach, Moyer spoke of the company-wide food drive initiated across Bayer plants in Iowa in 2016 that has spread to 28 sites nationwide by 2021, generating nearly 200,000 lbs. of food for local pantries.
Bayer employees participate in numerous community activities such as coat drives, blood drives; putting up flags at Hazel Cemetery for Memorial Day; the plant hosts food packing events for Grinnell Food Coalition; Bayer gives employees two paid days to render volunteer service and augments the service with cash contribution after 30 volunteer hours.
The Grinnell Rotary Club meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. at West Side Dining on 6th Ave., Grinnell.