The next

Who’s Who 2020 2

Next generation buys into Bogaard Hay

Ryan Bogaard lives in Moses Lake to do the hay buying of Bogaard Hay for Whatcom County farms. (Courtesy photo)

Ryan Bogaard, Kevin Greiner bring their trucking and hay buying experience

By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN — The ownership of Bogaard Hay Company has been transferred to a next generation.

Effective March 1, Ryan Bogaard and Kevin Greiner took over as owners from second-generation brothers Gordon and and Phil Bo gaard, who had stepped in with their dad, Andrew Bo gaard, around 1980.

“It’s been good. It’s treated us well,” said Phil of the business that has been both his and Gord’s lifetime commitment.

However, in the 40 years with the brothers at the helm, “things have changed drastically and that’s why the next generation (comes in),” he said.

Phil Bogaard said he is just happy that both Ryan and Kevin were interested in owning to allow a transition of the business to happen.

And the two new own ers are eager for the challenge. Ryan Bogaard, a son of Phil, has been and contin ues to be involved as a hay buyer in Moses Lake, where he lives.

Greiner has been a lo gistics coordinator with LTI Inc. trucking of Lynden, re sponsible for the team of people doing milk hauling from local farms.

“I joke with everyone that I just went to the other

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end of the cow,” Greiner said.

He grew up in eastern Washington and began his time with LTI there, then came to Lynden 10 years ago. He and his wife, Michelle, have an 18-month-old son.

Greiner admits it was really a “cold call” on his part to the Bo gaards as to whether they were interested in selling the business. Their first face-to-face meeting was in Janu ary 2019, and the positive steps proceeded from there, also in cluding Ryan. “It’s really exciting,” he said, as he can bring his ex perience in farm-related trucking to this new venture.

In truth, being part of the family busi

See Bogaard on page 4

Brothers Gordon and Phil Bogaard are turning over the family hay business to new owner Kevin Greiner, right, along with Phil’s son Ryan Bogaard. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

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Bogaard

ness has been a dream from his boyhood, said Ryan Bo gaard in an email.

As a kid he progressed from sweeping floors in the Lynden shop to washing trucks and trailers and un loading small bales. Then it was working as a mechanic. When he got his driving CDL, he could deliver hay loads to Whatcom farms.

The opportunities to learn the business grew.

“I wanted to try driving east of the mountains and ended up doing that fulltime for almost three years. I knew that if one day I want ed to be an owner I would need to learn more of the Continued from page 3

business. I had the oppor tunity to start coming to the eastside with my uncle Gord and start learning about and buying hay. A year after that I decided to pack up and move to Moses Lake so I could be more involved on this side with the buying of the hay. This year will be my 15th year with the company and I am excited for the fu ture of company,” he wrote. Bogaard Hay has a yard with a small shop in Moses Lake. Some drivers also live over there.

“We have a great group of employees and we plan to keep business as usual like it was before Kevin and I came on as owners and make it an easy transition for them,” Ryan Bogaard said.

He and new partner Greiner, and their support ive young families, are getting to know each other better through this transition process.

“I feel like I have been blessed by God with this op portunity as one of the new owners,” Ryan said. “We have our work cut out for us, and we both want to see BHC grow, while still main taining great customer service and quality hay for the dairy industry.”

Both Phil and Gord Bogaard themselves can remember going through the similar experiences of unloading hay and driving truck before coming into the Main Street yard office to run operations.

Across the whole span since founding by their dad around 1960, Bogaard Hay Inc. has mainly supplied dairy farmers of Whatcom County with their eastern Washington alfalfa needs.

“I’m staying on as long as they want me,” Phil said, which he expects to be one to two years.

In recent years, the brothers met several times per week to go over anything in management while Gord also got involved in their Bogaard Meadows residen tial development as Lynden growth has encircled the original seven-acre hay trucks yard at 1718 Main St.

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