Jeff Summers
In Town: Jeff Summers owns two businesses in Marshfield, Mo. He owns Webster County Recycling, LLC, and Sum Enterprises, LLC. Jeff said, “We are a recycling center and pay money for metals. We mostly generate aluminum cans. I do buy salvage vehicles, copper, brass, radiators, lead, stainless steel and scrap aluminum. We’ve been at this location for 20 years.”
He explained, “The automotive repair shop we set up under Sum Enterprises. We do state vehicle inspections and minor automotive mechanic work. I used to do quite a bit more ‘wrenching’ when there wasn’t a lot of recycling.”
Jeff has scaled back on the mechanic work, but still does state inspections.
In the Country: Jeff and his wife, Linda, own Summers Farms. Married almost 25 years, they own 115 acres where they reside, and bought another 54 acres last spring. Jeff has a cow/calf operation, and currently has 36 cows. It isn’t easy juggling the farm and the two businesses. He said, “Some things get cut short. My boys are 14-year-old Matthew and 16-year-old Joseph and it’s wonderful how much help they are. They also have several cows of their own and they are very good at contributing, especially when I need them. Joseph is in FFA and Matthew has already shown interest in being in FFA.”
A Reliable Crop: “Last year I needed to cull some, especially when the drought was going on. We were able to scrape by. One of the neatest things came about after talking with people from around here about the drought of ’54, ’55 and ’56. I remember dad talking about that. We decided to either buy hay or plant turnips. We planted turnips and we got turnips. I did an 11-acre patch right before the Isaac storm came in from Texas. I broadcasted it with winter wheat and got a beautiful stand. It was so fun to watch the cows eat turnips.”
Story and Photo by Brenda Brinkley
