When your job title is Colorado Beef Quality Assurance Coordinator, an outside observer would likely imagine that you took a fairly predictable path to that assignment.
Rancher’s kid. Small town. 4-H participant. Animal lover. And in this state, Colorado State University alumnus.
Libby Bigler certainly checks most of those boxes. She grew up in tiny Elbert, an unincorporated town about 56 miles southeast of Denver. She was one of 20 in her graduating class at Elbert High School, and an active participant in 4-H activities. But even though she loved animals and often showed pigs, lambs and steers, she did not grow up on a ranch.
“My dad works for Douglas County Parks, and my mom is a hairdresser,” she said. “I knew pretty early on that I wanted to be in agriculture. I was on the 4-H livestock judging tam when I was 12, and that’s really what got me started.”
