RANDY JASPERSON—STEADY AND STRATEGIC
Te Jasperson family shows their street rods with pride during 2017’s annual Street Rod Nationals. By Suz Trusty
Jasperson Sod Farm covers 1,200 acres around Franksville, Wisconsin. Its location—20 miles from Milwaukee and 60 miles from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport—is ideal for serving both markets. Te largest section of land, 700 acres, is centered around the original family farm. Te second section covers 500 contiguous acres and is just 2.5 miles away, an easy drive by truck or tractor. Growth has been steady and strategic, a reflection of Randy Jasperson, the man at the helm of this operation, and a good description of him as well.
Now a third-generation family business, Jasperson Sod Farm is well positioned for the present and poised to embrace the challenges of the future.
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Getting Started Te Jasperson sod business started in 1959, when Randy’s dad, Buster, and his uncle, Lyle, planted two acres of Merion bluegrass. Teir initial input was small. Te land was part of the family’s vegetable farm. Tey’d borrowed its seeder to plant the Merion and they borrowed a mower from their grandparents. Teir only major purchase was an old Sod Master sod cutter. “Tey couldn’t afford a Ryan,” says Randy. “Our current budget for parts and repair is greater in a single week than their total investment.”
Two years later, the brothers were growing sod on 40 acres of their own and on several 10 to 20-acre rental properties. As with most family farms, the kids help. So Randy and his brother, Rick, had an up close and personal connection to the sod and the company.
Randy says, “When I was in grade school, we were producing about 180 acres of sod, some owned and some rented. Many of the vegetable growers were making the move to sod. At one point, there were over 20 sod growers within a three-mile radius.”
“In the late 60s, Rick and I saw the need to connect the sod with its customers in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas,” says Randy. Tey purchased a truck and started selling sod picked up at the farm to homeowners and landscapers in those markets. “Rick went to law school and got a real job. I went to engineering school, thinking I’d become an electrical engineer. After a year I knew it wasn’t the path for me. So I stayed on running the trucking business.” He had one truck, but quickly started growing from there.
TPI Turf News September/October 2017
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