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.

Returning to a focus on agriculture, Cheryl joined a start-up tech firm, developing innovative risk management tools to hedge grain for producers and grain originators. This transition brought her to Kaycee and Johnson County, Wyoming, which has now been her home long enough to see both times of drought and times of plenty. Cheryl then went to work as a ranch hand to learn firsthand how to apply her knowledge of land and livestock to the rangelands of the west.

For Cheryl, licensed since 2007, the opportunity to work with people who love the land— whether it be the grass rangelands or the mountain elk country, gorgeous lifestyle ranches or a pivot irrigated hay farm—has been incredibly rewarding. Having been in the ranch brokerage business for the extent of her real estate career, Cheryl enjoys forging relationships with clients and helping them achieve their goals. She also applies her ethic of hard work, truth and honesty, putting others first, and attention to detail to every relationship.

Cheryl enjoys volunteering within her community and serves on the Wyoming Agricultural Leadership Council board of directors, which administers the Wyoming Leadership Education and Development program. She is a member of her local Search and Rescue unit and is active in her church. Free time for Cheryl is filled with hiking and exploring as many corners of the landscape as she can with Joe Henry, her awesome English Shepherd. She also enjoys helping the neighbors work cows, music, photography and travel.