By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

The North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE), currently taking place Nov. 7-21 in Louisville, has turned 50 years old. The nation’s largest all-breed, purebred livestock show began five decades ago, Nov. 17-23, 1974, to be exact.

Kentucky seized the opportunity to create NAILE in the early 1970s. The International Live Stock   Exposition had been at Union Stock Yards in Chicago since 1900, but when the Stock Yards closed in 1971, many were concerned that the expo would end as well.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s (KDA) beef and swine show supervisor, Harold Workman, and a group of the state’s livestock breeders approached then-Gov. Wendell Ford about creating a new major livestock show in Louisville.

“Harold and others went up there (to Chicago) and made a pitch,” said Kentucky Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Warren Beeler. “Our facility (at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville) had come along far enough to accommodate the thing, and we were lucky enough to have Harold and those that were aggressive enough to go up there and take a shot.”

In 1973, Gov. Ford announced the new livestock show would be planned by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) and appointed Workman as secretary-manager of NAILE. The North Wing of the Expo Center is named in his honor.

Many of the leaders from those early days – Charles Barnhart, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture; Garland Bastin, general superintendent; Claude Brock, director of media operations; Jack Ragsdale, chairman of the Advisory and Executive Committees; and Workman, general manager – would continue to serve NAILE for decades.

The first NAILE was a beef cattle show, but over the past five decades, it expanded to 10 livestock divisions that attracts nearly 30,000 entries every year from all 48 contiguous states.

NAILE is blessed with a small army of friendly volunteers focused on exhibitors’ interests and needs.

“As general superintendent, I say at least 50 times a day, ‘Sure glad to have you here!’” Beeler said. “All of our staff and volunteers are very hospitable.”

Workman collaborated with Roy Gibson, founder of Feeders Supply Co. in Louisville, to create a brand – bright green wood shavings on the show floor, which became an icon. Feeders Supply continues to make the shavings every year for the Expo Center.

“Our unique thing is the green shavings,” Beeler said. “You don’t know how many times I’ve seen people pick up some of the shavings and put them in a bag as a keepsake. There’s some glamour to showing on those green shavings.”

When Workman retired on Dec. 31, 2012, after nearly two decades of service as the Kentucky State Fair Board’s chief executive officer, Beeler was tapped to take over as only the third general superintendent of NAILE.

“Harold built this thing; I’m a Harold Workman disciple,” said Beeler, a longtime swine judge and hog show announcer. “I’ve never missed a North American. In college, I showed pigs there for Western Kentucky University.

“The North American is really special,” he added. “We’re so blessed to have it here in our own backyard. The premier show in the world is right here.”