Direct marketing beef builds ‘tremendous opportunity’

“They told me I would fail,” says Colleen Biggs, remembering the phone call she made soon after taking over sales and marketing on the home ranch. It was 1995, and with no room to cut costs any deeper, she had called the Alberta Ag Ministry to find out more about direct marketing, thinking their way forward had to be to add value.

Conventional wisdom said it couldn’t work, especially in a province dominated by a powerhouse commercial beef sector. But what other choice was there?

Biggs had already ruled out working off farm to help keep their dream afloat. With three young children, the minimum-wage jobs nearby wouldn’t cover childcare, and a better-paying job in her field would mean working over three hours away in Calgary.

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