Friends team up to drive a vertically integrated family business
How do you navigate the bumpy and sometimes scary roads of business ownership? Have an ace copilot.
Macey Wessels and Shelly Boshart Davis were at a crossroad. The two had each grown up in a family business, learning everything from driving a tractor to running a mint still to calculating profit and loss. They cherished working with their families but were also itching for a new opportunity.
“We weren’t 100% sure where our place would be in the future with our family businesses,” Wessels says. “We knew what we wanted, whether it would be together or separate.”
After exploring several opportunities, Boshart Davis called Wessels, saying, “I think we should buy my parents out.”
In 2018, the friends bought Boshart Trucking, based in Tangent, Ore., from Boshart Davis’ parents, Stan and Lori. What started as a two-truck company in 1983, by Stan and his brother Gene, is a multi-entity business today:
- Boshart Trucking, owned and managed by Boshart Davis and Wessels, is a trucking and custom baling operation, which works with 40 grass seed growers at harvest to bale more than 20,000 acres.
- BOSSCO Trading, owned by Stan and Lori Boshart and managed by Boshart Davis, sells and ships straw to global customers.
- PressCo, owned by Stan and Lori Boshart and managed by Wessels, is a straw pressing facility.
In addition to these businesses, Wessels and the Bosharts own separate farming operations producing grass seed and hazelnuts.
“We are vertically integrated and handle everything from baling to marketing,” Boshart Davis says. “We relinquish ownership when straw hits its international destination. Our goal is to be as direct with our customers as possible.”
Most of the straw leaves Portland, Ore., which is 45 miles from their pressing facility, destined for Japan or South Korea to be used for fiber in livestock feed rations.
Complement and Challenge
As friends who met a decade ago when advocating for policy changes in Salem, Ore., Boshart Davis and Wessels each bring unique skill sets to the team. “It’s humorous,” Boshart Davis says. “The things I’m bad at, Macey is good at — and vice versa. As different as we are, our goals are 100% aligned.”
“There is nobody’s opinion I want more than Shelly’s,” Wessels says. “She is more of a driver where
I approach things slower. If I have reservations about something, she stops and pays attention.”
Boshart Davis handles international sales. During the summer, she leads harvest logistics, from dispatching crews to baling. She sees that all straw makes it to the barns.
From there, Wessels takes over. She manages quality control, the pressing process and custom hauling to the port. She oversees off-season maintenance, as well as all dispatch and operations of both company locations, including a truck shop. Since Wessels’ background is not in trucking, she brings a fresh eye to costs and budgets. In the past year, she and Boshart Davis have audited every business cost. Estimates are now hard numbers.
“It is funny and annoying how close my dad can be to an inventory number just by eyeing a barn or knowing how many days into harvest we are,” Boshart Davis says. “That’s a skill I’m trying to master.”
They have done a competitive analysis to understand if they are too dependent on any one enterprise.
This is vital in international business, Boshart Davis says. For more than 20 years, she has been a student of international risk, analyzing exchange risks, banking policies and documentation protocols.
Strength in Numbers
The team includes 40 employees. During harvest, that number can hit 80, as they run 35 trucks, five baling crews and 10 balers.
“Every decision we make is about making sure our 40 employees can continue to feed their families and enjoy their jobs,” Boshart Davis says.
The team bales more than 400 fields, many of which don’t have addresses.
“We have to get a rake, baler, stacker, trucks and a field loader into each field,” Boshart Davis says. “This takes meticulous planning and communication. Beyond GPS technology, we have moved away from paper field reports to tablets equipped with digital reports, allowing us to pass on real-time information from our office to the field.”
A Family Culture
Overall, the team sees low turnover. To compete, they focus on what they bring to the table versus others.
“We’re in the market in terms of pay,” Wessels says. “We’ve always believed paying the top dollar isn’t what makes employees happy. We treat our employees like family. We value them and work alongside them. All of our employees have me on speed dial. If they have to take someone to the hospital, I may be the one they call to pick up their kids.”
The demand for truckers is historically high. To keep their pipeline full of talent, the Boshart team has started a pilot program.
“As opposed to hiring experienced drivers, 10% of our drivers can be in training,” Wessels says. “We spend more money to have them in a truck with another driver, but I can hire drivers who will fit with the team.”
The Boshart team trains and employs 20 to 30 local teenagers every year. Through the process, the teenagers learn responsibility, farm safety and teamwork all while earning a wage for their work.
With deep roots in agriculture, Wessels and Boshart Davis take an active role in advocacy and policy.
“Both have experienced the disconnect between policymakers and the non-farm public and those families who produce our food and fiber. Rather than complain, they meet the challenge and close those gaps,” says Dave Dillon, executive vice president of Oregon Farm Bureau.
“They step forward, not for personal gain, but because they support a bright future for Oregon agriculture,” adds Jenny Dresler with the Public Affairs Counsel.
In 2018, Boshart Davis was elected to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives for District 15. She has served on committees that span labor, agriculture and carbon.
“She is frequently described as a ‘legislator who accurately represents her rural constituents,’” Dresler says.
No Glass Ceiling
Boshart Davis and her husband, Geoff, have three daughters, Kyndall, Ashlynn and Samantha Jo, and Macey has a daughter, Addison.
They are proud their daughters don’t even know the term glass ceiling; they see their moms do it all. Drive truck? Check. Own land and make operational decisions? Check. Own and run an agribusiness? Check. Hold a state legislative seat? Check. Do this as a mom? Check.
“That is powerful and makes us proud,” Boshart Davis and Wessels say. “We believe ‘you need to see it to be it,’ and for our daughters as well as other females, we hope they see this in us by our actions. If we can do it, they can do it.”
Snapshot of Boshart Trucking
- Operation: Boshart Trucking is a custom farming and trucking operation based in Tangent, Ore. Shelly Boshart Davis and Macey Wessels own the business and are involved in its related enterprises of farming, straw pressing and international marketing.
- Family and Team: Boshart Davis and her husband, Geoff, have three daughters and Wessels has a daughter. The team includes 40 employees, a large harvest crew and Boshart Davis’ parents, Stan and Lori.
- Community: The Boshart team is part of an “Adopt-a-Farmer” program, which pairs a middle school class with a farm. Visiting kids climb inside trucks and tractors and learn about business terms such as currency and shipping logistics.
This Boshart truck, along with seven others, are moving billboards. They promote the role of farmers and ranchers through a program lead by the Oregon Women for Agriculture.
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