Kent Smith
In Town: Smith Flooring was founded in 1947 by Kent’s grandfather, Viandel “Spider” Smith. “He partnered with Ralph Padgett and in 1960 Spider bought out Ralph and began expanding the business,” explained Kent. “I am part of the third generation of our family that now operates Smith Flooring. We operate a saw mill and flooring mill to produce oak flooring for our family distributor in Springfield, Classic Wood Floors, as well as distributors throughout the United States.” Smith Flooring, Inc. in Mountain View, Mo., employs about 110 people. “We have always been and will always be a family business,” added Kent.
In the Country: “We have raised Black Angus cattle for longer than I can remember,” Kent smiled. “We’ve had cattle on the farms since the ‘50s.” Smith’s run a cow/calf operation of just over 1,000 head raised on just over 5,000 acres of pasture land.
“Both the flooring mill and the farms are family operated, but couldn’t be done without our employees,” Kent added. “We have four full-time ranch hands and a few part-time helpers. David White, our farm manager for more than 10 years, is a good manager and continues to improve the herd and pasture land. Our employees, both at the farm and the plant, are a major part of our company’s success,” he said. “We also employ two full-time timber managers to oversee the 20,000 acres of Smith timberland,” he added.
Marketing: “We have been in and more often out of the purebred business,” Kent chuckled. “I enjoy certain aspects of purebred cattle but also see great value in crossbred stock that thrives on our mixed grass pasture. For the last 10 years we have been selling steers through Superior Livestock Auction utilizing the Plummer family in Mountain Grove as our agents. We grow our own replacement heifers marketing some of them locally,” he added.
Story and Photo by Stephanie Beltz-Price
