The History of the Shoestring Ranch
The Murray family has a long and proud history in Southern Alberta. Ian's Great-Great-Grandfather homesteaded in the Jumping Pound area west of Calgary in 1883. Ever since then the Murrays have been farming and ranching. First in Jumping Pound, then west of Olds, then for nearly forty years north of Cochrane, and now we have relocated to Acme to grow and expand our ranching operation. Ty and Amber represent the sixth generation of Murrays in the ranching industry.
For several years, Shoestring Ranch marketed directly its own line of Natural Angus Beef to customers at the Bearspaw Farmers Market and directly from home, selling everything by the cut, just as you would buy it at the grocery store. After relocating from north of Cochrane to outside of Linden, and the expansion of the size of the operation, the direct marketing of our beef was not sustainable for a single family operation. This was a very difficult decision for us as we truly valued the relationships that we have built selling our Natural Angus Beef directly to consumers for 11 years. It was simply a decision that was based on time, or the lack thereof, and the need to redirect our time to other parts of our ranch, and our family.
With the absence of direct marketing, the focus shifted to joining forces with other producers who share the same values of raising high quality, natural beef with an emphasis on the sustainability of the land and environment which is the main input for the production of high quality, natural beef.
We feel very strongly about doing things right, the first time, and understand the need to work with nature to better our land for our future generations. We are very proud of our certification on the Verified Beef Production Program and the Environmental Farm Plan. Programs like these provide producers with valuable tools to help us produce a safe consistent quality food product and back us up with verification to prove that we are doing what we say we do. We don't produce cattle, we produce food, and that is a responsibility that we don't take lightly.