Profile of a ...
Young and Successful Entrepreneur
Lee Davis is not your father's sugar maker

One thing is for certain: You will not find a horse-drawn sled or buckets on maple trees at Davis Family Maple. Owner Lee Davis, 32, is definitely not a traditional sugar maker. He is a modern, technologically savvy producer with long-range goals for his business and state-of-the art technology in his sugarhouse.

Across the Northeast, fresh, pure maple syrup is truly one of the first signs of spring. When the cold nights and above-freezing days of early spring arrive, entrepreneurs like Lee Davis, of Underhill, Vt., are busy collecting sap from acres of sugar maple trees and boiling it down to produce nature’s gold.

As a boy, Lee first caught the sugar-making bug at his grandparents’ sugarhouse in Sheldon, Vt. Later, he assumed responsibility for the small sugaring operation that his dad and brother had developed.

“By 2003,” Lee says, “I was ready to start my own business.”

So he came to Farm Credit for a loan.

‘Complicated’ technology

For those whose image of sugaring is buckets, horse-drawn sleds and wood-burning stoves, stopping by Lee’s sugarhouse is a surprise. One visitor during last year’s Vermont Maple Open House Weekend said, “The technology is a lot more complicated than I thought.”

It’s easy to understand that type of reaction when you consider that Lee operates a fully equipped 32’ x 60’ sugarhouse with two huge 6,000- gallon stainless steel sap storage tanks, a computer-controlled evaporator and more than 10 miles of plastic tube linking the sugarhouse to 7,500 taps. He draws sap from his 35-acre sugar bush and also leases 100 acres of trees on neighboring property.

“We attach a vacuum pump to our tubing to keep the sap moving in the tubes from the trees to the sugarhouse,” Lee explained. “The vacuum also increases sap yield from each tap hole, compared to the yield you get from buckets. In addition, our new reverse osmosis (RO) machine saves us a lot of time in the sugarhouse, and gives us more time in the woods when the sap is running. The system is also helpful with today’s high oil prices because we spend less time boiling sap.”

Demanding business

Sugar making is a demanding business, especially for part-time operators like Lee. As a full-time electrician at a local ski resort, he somehow fits sugaring into busy weekends from February though April. He also spends many weekends throughout the year preparing for the season, with the help of friends and family, including his father and sister, plus his wife, Megan, and his two sons, Brandon, 11, and Cody, 9.

How does he do it?

“It takes dedication, focus and organization,” Lee says. “I am also frugal and learn where to invest my money for the best results. In my case, my best investment is technology.”

About Farm Credit

Lee says that Farm Credit helps save time, given his busy work schedule. “Our loan officers, Mike Farmer and Penny Overton, made both our business and home construction loan process very easy, and having Mike prepare our taxes has worked very well for us, particularly since he understands sugaring so well.”

One thing is for certain: Lee Davis is not a sugar maker of the past. He represents today’s technology-savvy sugar makers who are in the business for the long haul.

In fact, Lee has expressed an interest in converting his sugaring business into a full-time operation. When that happens, Farm Credit will be there to help.

Contact us at info@yankeeaca.com for more information.

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