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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 5, 2004

Jay Davis—
A marketer
of energy

Jay and Laura Davis of Grandview.

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Stick around Jay Davis of Grandview any length of time and you'll find out he's not in the business of selling crops or cattle. Rather, this 33-year-old producer from Grandview confesses he's in the energy business.

When you break it all down, Jay, with a background as a nutritionist, says, "We are marketers of energy. And it's energy that's captured by the nutrients and the crops we cultivate in the soil, with God's gifts of sunshine and rain. What we try to do is receive the best value for that energy that we market, whether it be through the grain to the elevator, or through the gain and maintenance of beef and dairy cattle. What we're trying to achieve here is best value."

Jay takes pride in capturing that energy a number of ways in his diversified operation. With cattle, he is primarily a stocker operator, and the biggest part of his business is custom gain and custom preconditioning of cattle. The family business has also branched off into developing beef and dairy replacement heifers.

Growing out of that successful cattle operation is a trucking business, an integral part of the operation. Jay hauls cattle, as well as grain and feedstuffs for the cattle operation, and fertilizer. This year, in an attempt to further diversify, he started hauling plants to different nurseries around the southern U.S.

"It works out well for us, because it compliments our livestock hauling business," Jay says, noting that the operation has nine trucks and a multitude of trailers. "It offsets the slow times of year for us."

These different aspects of his operation tie back to what Jay considers his core business: farming.

"Our main production is wheat. We grow some milo, which is utilized 100 percent in our operation as feed for livestock, and we're also growing some corn," he says.

Jay grew up on the family operation located then at the site of DFW International Airport near Grapevine. The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth purchased the family farm, and Jay's father continued to lease and farm that land for a number of years. His father moved the operation to Grandview when Jay was 13.

Today, challenges are many for this young producer. The biggest, current challenge is the price of fuel.

"That's just one thing you can't predict is what happened this year with the fuel prices," Davis said, acknowledging the fuel-dependent trucking business. "And that really cuts into the bottom line on the operation, increasing your expenses."

A larger, ongoing problem, however, is dealing with labor. With the close proximity of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, opportunities abound for local labor to find other work.

"This isn't an easy life," Jay, with 12 employees, admits. "We a lot of times clock in 80 to 100 hours a week around here. When there are other opportunities for people to work 40 hours a week, that can be a lot more appealing to a lot of people."

For Jay's wife, Laura, farming is a relatively new experience. Being married less than two years, Laura continues her job in Fort Worth with Lockheed-Martin. But she has a growing appreciation for the rural lifestyle.

"Having not been a part of farming or ranching until recently, I've gained a tremendous amount of respect on how hard a life it is," Laura says. "But I've also come to realize how rewarding it is as well. I had no clue living in the city what it was like until now."

Jay, too, readily admits the rewards of agriculture: "Six days a week we're going wide open around here trying to get the job done. But daylight on Sunday mornings, when there's no cell phones ringing and no two-way radios calling my name, and I'm out checking cattle and it's quite peaceful...that's when I really realize why I'm in this. Because it allows you to be back close to nature and you realize you're carrying on a legacy of American agriculture, and trying to keep it alive for future generations down the road."

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