TORONTO — Mario Comtois nursed a beer before the big show to calm his nerves.
“It is very stressful, you know,” he said in a lilting French accent.
This has been a very good year for the owner and showman of this year’s supreme champion dairy cow at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.
His cow, named RF Goldwyn Hailey, won the national Holstein show and in October was named supreme champion at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.
His family owned operation, Gen-Com Holstein Ltd., bought the cow as a youngster at the Cowtown Holsteins sale in Vermont.
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“She is a perfect show cow and she has done very well for us,” said Comtois.
Its Holstein classification is an excellent 97. Born in April 2006, the cow has had four calves and 11 offspring.
Embryos have been sold to Japan, Australia and Germany, and more offers to purchase were being made after the Royal show.
The farm at Notre-Dame-du-Bon Conseil, Que., milks 130 cows and has 500 head on site.
The farm’s main business is livestock exports. Comtois has gathered thousands of beef and dairy cattle from across Canada and exported them to Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. For the last five years he has exported milk cows to Russia.
“They are looking for good, commercial milking cows,” he said during the Nov. 2-11 event.
He also exports pigs, shipping 30,000 purebred and F1 pigs to Cuba and Russia between 2004 and 2009.
