Fair boss vows greatest show on earth
When you've managed the Canadian National Exhibition, the CN Tower, SkyDome and the Royal Agri-cultural Winter Fair, you know a bit about show business. The Royal's one-man promotion machine, David Gar-rick, brings quite a r_sum_ to the table as the piggy calendar in his office counts down the days to the 75th Royal Winter Fair, Nov. 6-15, at Toronto's new National Trade Centre.Asked about making the transition from baseball to dairy cows, the 57- year-old Royal CEO doesn't miss a beat, shooting back with a perfect made- for-media sound bite: "The Royal has a better bullpen," he quips, adding "you can use that" as if there were any doubt.
Marshalling thousands of head of dairy, beef and poultry into the gleaming 14-acre National Trade Centre won't faze Garrick, who recalls opening day at SkyDome in 1989, when the roof opened and the rains poured onto tuxedos and gowns, not to mention high-voltage equipment on stage.
"We had to open it," he rationalizes eight years later. "Otherwise, the media would have said we couldn't." Some similar quick thinking saved a massive payout for rain checks, as Garrick hatched an 11th-hour deal with Sketchley dry cleaners to give free dry-cleaning to all doused Domegoers who presented ticket stubs. The result: 7,000 happy Sketchley customers.
Garrick thrives on good, old-fashioned showmanship, pulling political or media management strings when he has to. Even the headaches get turned into headlines: inviting Toronto garden growers to pick up their personal "Pachyderm poop" when the circus was in town, for instance.
This year's Royal will have its share of Garrick groaners. The winner of a CITY-TV rooster calling contest might just win a trip to Cochrane. Identical twins will be admitted free on the Toronto Sun's "Dolly Day," named after the infamous Scottish cloned sheep.
A 75th-anniversary postage stamp will be issued on opening day. Students from two schools celebrating their 75th birthday will be bussed to the fair courtesy of Laidlaw. The first 750 visitors will be admitted for 25 cents, the price on opening day back in 1922. And Garrick has tracked down a direct descendant of the man who bought the first ticket. The Toronto Star is sponsoring a contest to name a new foal in the RCMP's Musical Ride. Weston's is baking a giant "75" cake. And then there's the butter sculpture of Elvis...
Despite all the hoopla, however, Garrick points to the strong agri-business focus of the show, which he says remains the vital "third leg of the milking stool" along with the horse show and the Winter Garden.
When asked how he plans to bring agriculture back to the Royal, Garrick retorts that it never left. The dairy show alone attracts 6,000 visitors from 67 countries, he says, unable to resist another sound bite: "It's our 75th anniversary, it's one million square feet, and we have $1 million in prize money on the dairy and animal side, plus the horse show, so we're calling it 'one in a million'."
He also cites a 1996 Conference Board of Canada study showing that buyers and sellers did $5 million in business at last year's Royal, which injected $29 million into the provincial economy over 10 days.
Garrick is determined to bring the show "down to earth." The Bank of Montreal Education Ring has demonstrations running 12 hours a day on everything from sheep shearing to llamas.
As part of the "Taste of Ontario" Grow Ontario restaurant promotion project co-ordinated by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, area hotel chefs will come to the Kraft Stage to cook up dishes featuring Ontario produce.
From his days at SkyDome, Garrick expects the new trade centre will be a draw in itself: "They called it the 'Dome factor'," he says of the 35 per cent of people who went to the stadium simply to see the building. "They didn't care who was playing - it could have been tiddly winks."
With four halls flanked by the old brick fa_ade on the inside and modern glass on the outer wall, the $180-million 600,000-square-foot trade centre is fully environmentally controlled, with a change of air every six minutes. A 1,300-parking-spot garage below will allow visitors to leave their coats in their cars.
This year's Royal, five days shorter than last year "because we're paying rent," will spill into the renovated Coliseum area, bringing the total floor space to one million square feet. Animals will come in through some of the 42 loading docks. Livestock shoppers can do business at the Trade Link area.
Dairy will be in Halls B and C, with two judging rings, beef in the old Industry Building, and poultry and cats in Hall D, "which should be fun," Garrick says.
While visitor surveys show many people come to the Royal for the love of animals, many farmers come to socialize, Garrick says.
At the time of the first Royal in 1922, when a good cow produced 12,000 pounds of milk a year and milk cost 12 cents a half gallon, delivered, farmers made the trek to Toronto "to showcase the best...and to let their hair down after the crops were in," says Garrick.
Seventy-five years later, cows may churn out more milk, but David Garrick has every intention of making the Royal as fun as it ever was. - JMM
Farm radio man has fond Fair memories
By BERNARD TOBIN
For farmers who have watched Murray Gaunt's career over the years, it's hard to believe that the man who brings the farm news, prices and weather to their pick-up trucks and kitchen tables from Wingham's CKNX Radio would fear an opportunity to entertain an audience.More than 40 years ago, Gaunt, a shy teenager from Lucknow, and his shorthorn calf finished eighth in their first showing at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair's 4-H competition. There were no ribbons that year, but in 1953, Gaunt captured the Champion Shorthorn Calf award and in 1955, he and his prized shorthorn bull, Butch, took home the Queen's Guineas, the top shorthorn award in the beef 4-H division.
"It was the apex for beef 4-H members; no question, that was where it was at. That was one of the most exciting days of my life," says Gaunt, who along with Butch prepared for their big win by "walking a mile a day, rain or shine.
"It's a real thrill to see the hand of the judge come down on the rump of your calf after showing there for all those years and coming close," Gaunt says.
While all 4-H participants dream of driving home with a Royal ribbon, quite often the lessons learned throughout their 4-H years are more significant.
The Queen's Guineas was "the culmination of a great run in 4-H for me," says Gaunt, who still has his prized ribbons "tucked away". But the skills he polished during his 4-H days have proven even more valuable for the 62-year-old broadcaster, who still owns one of the three farms his father, a purebred shorthorn farmer, operated when he was a boy.
"I was a very shy individual and had great difficulty speaking in public. When I was first enrolled in 4-H, I used to be scared skinny when I had to give reasons," says Gaunt who began taking part in 4-H activities at age 12.
To overcome his nerves, Gaunt participated in every activity he could, and by the time he moved on to Junior Farmers at age 21, the sound of knocking knees had faded.
"It was a great experience and one I credit with helping me as I pursued my career in public life and in broadcasting." Since his Queen's Guineas triumph, Gaunt has lead a very public life in both politics and agriculture.
In 1956, after attending Ontario Agricultural College for two years, he returned to farming and operated a poultry business before signing on with CKNX as assistant farm director. In 1962, he was elected to the Ontario Legislature where he served for more than 18 years, including stints as Liberal agriculture and environment critic.
After leaving provincial politics in 1981, he returned to CKNX. During the 1980s, Gaunt served on several industry commissions, including the 1984 Beef Marketing Commission, set up by the province to help develop a provincial single-desk beef marketing agency. A year later, Gaunt was appointed Chairman of the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission and still serves in that capacity.
"I've very fond memories of the Royal," he says, noting that he always found time away from his duties at Queen's Park to visit the fair.
This year, Gaunt's duties will take him back to the fair once again. He'll be broadcasting live daily from the Royal beginning Nov. 9.
Win at Royal returns more than ribbons
By CHRISTINA SELBY
Any livestock owner will tell you there's prestige in picking up a Royal blue ribbon. But to winners and non-winners alike, the mere exposure provided by showing at the Royal is just as likely to bump up the bottom line.Gerald Comfort has been showing sheep at the Royal for over 45 years. "You get a better return on your product if you win," he says, but adds that the Royal is "the best place to go" simply to put livestock in front of potential customers, including buyers from other provinces and around the world. Comfort, who says he started selling sheep to South America as a result of showing at the Royal, has 50 Dorset ewes and 25 Suffolk ewes on his 50-acre operation in St. Anns. Last year, he won Champion Ram and Champion Ewe in the Dorset category.
George Earley, whose Hillcrest Farm in Kerwood is a 175-head, cow-calf operation on 500 acres, had great success at last year's show. Hillcrest won for Aberdeen Angus, Charolais, Maine-Anjou, Chianina, along with other categories in the Market Beef Cattle division, including Grand Champion Market Beef Animal and Grand Champion Carcass.
"You look at it as advertising," Earley says. "If you're consistently there, consistently close to the top," sales will follow. Royal blue ribbons have helped him sell bulls to the Maritimes, Saskatchewan and the U.S.
"The Royal and the Western Agribition in Regina are each show windows," for international buyers to see livestock in one swoop, he says. Earley says you couldn't see the variety in two weeks of non-stop, cross-country travel that you can see in a couple of days at the Royal: "Everyone is represented."
The Royal "is the biggest and best beef show in Eastern Canada," says Doug McDonell, agriculture manager for the show. The Western show-usually held in November-focuses almost exclusively on beef, so the Royal's livestock variety is an important feature. With 7,000 examples of quality livestock, not including horses, this year's fair won't be an exception. McDonell believes the Royal's dairy display is unsurpassed in North America.
Last year, 58 per cent of the Jersey and Holstein sales were exported, mainly to South America and Europe, with a small amount going to Japan. According to McDonell, sales to the U.S. are "not a big part of sales at the Royal."
McDonell expects more out-of-province visitors this year, partly because of the new facility and because for the first time in over a decade dairy and beef will be displayed at the same time, not in separate weeks. Last year, the international contingent consisted of 6,000 visitors from 67 countries.
Earley sums up the benefits of participating in the fair as "prestige, advertising potential, and potential of a reward."
"This is a congregation of the elite livestock people." And though he compares competing to buying a lottery ticket - "It's a gamble" - it can pay off by helping to ensure farmers get the best price for their product. "You hope that you'll make contacts and sell more livestock down the road."