Some fun facts about things at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
- Over the seven days of the Dairy Cattle Show, cows produce approximately 22,000 litres of milk. Of course, cows aren't the only milk producers, and this year, there are also demonstrations of goat milking at The Fair too!
- The Royal is a busy place for people and animals. Each year more than 350,000 people come to see the 3,600 beef and dairy cattle, 1,300 horses, 2,000 poultry pigeons and waterfowl, 300 sheep and 400 swine.
- All those animals makes for a lot of shovelling. About 4,000 cubic tons of manure is produced during the fair. That's enough to fill 100 semi-truck trailers.
- Did you know that a mature beef animal will drink between 35 and 65 litres of water a day?
- Look closely at the feet of the pigs at the fair. Although pigs have four toes on each hoof, they walk on only two of their toes on each foot. As a result they look like they are walking on tiptoe.
- Cattle, goats and sheep are all types of ruminants. Unlike humans, they have a stomach made up of four separate chambers which allows them to process fibrous plants such as grass, that humans could not digest.
- The very first Royal Winter Fair opened on November 22, back in 1922 and ran for eight days. Admission was 25 cents.
- Students from the Ontario College of Art use 20 kilograms of frozen butter for the annual butter sculpture contest which is one of the major attractions of The Dairy show.
- The giant vegetables are always popular with visitors. Last year the fair featured a 439 kilogram pumpkin and the second tallest cornstalk in the world at nine metres.
- Every year The Fair features the sheep shearing contest. Sheep shearing requires a great deal of skill. The fleece has to be removed in one single piece and is judged on the quality of the fleece's cut and how carefully the animals are handled. After all, the shearer must also be strong enough to hold the sheep in place while it is being sheared.
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