Cheryl Summer

Cheryl Summer

Associate Broker, WY

Licensed in WY, MT

Cheryl Summer is a Wyoming ranch property broker for Fay Ranches. Having spent her youth on the family dairy farm in the middle of Michigan’s “mitten,” the concept and practice of stewardship were deeply instilled within her. She learned principles she brings to her profession today: You don’t quit and go to the house until all the chores are done until every living thing that depends on you is well cared for, and until everything you are responsible for has been checked off. Rather than being a burden, the early mornings and late nights tending livestock, and planting and harvesting forged a strong bond with family and with the land.

Evolving practices of land stewardship and a keen interest in regenerative agriculture methods led Cheryl to attend a management-intensive grazing seminar with Jim Gerrish, where she learned, and then applied, rotational grazing methods with stocker cattle. She transitioned the row-crop production to a fully-certified organic farm, growing forages, small grains, and soybeans. With a breeding stable of thoroughbreds, training practices evolved from the old style of breaking colts to the more productive methods of imprinting and working with a horse.

Cheryl’s love for the land and livestock extends to wildlife. Spending all her free time in the woods practicing her tracking skills and birding led her to the field of Fisheries and Wildlife Management, then to Wildlife Toxicology. That specialization had her living on boats and working with Great Lakes’ waterbird populations. From there, research grants took her to Midway Island to work with albatrosses, studying the effects of global environmental contaminants on their reproduction.