Breed associations, breeders, auctioneers and industry peers describe Robert Hardy Shore of Glanworth, Ontario, as a dedicated, honourable, knowledgeable person who is an industry leader, great promoter and wonderful ambassador for Canada. They recognize him as an internationally respected livestock auctioneer and sales manager, a global exporter of Canadian livestock genetics, a superb judge of dairy cattle, prominent breeder of Quarter horses, importer of selected dairy genetics for use in Canada, excellent horseman, and a gentleman.
After graduation from the Guelph OAC Associate Diploma program and a school of auctioneering in Indiana, Bob Shore joined Shore Holsteins in 1953. After assuming ownership of the company, he changed the focus of the business from a regional auction enterprise, specializing only in dairy cattle, to an international export firm merchandising several species and many breeds from all over Canada to over 60 countries.
Not content to merely sell cattle at auction, Robert Shore used his skills to start the Shore Classic in 1964 to merchandise genetics. Record prices were set there and at the Shore Continental, which he initiated later. Syndicate purchasing, brought into the Holstein business by Bob Shore, permitted more Canadians to participate in ownership of high-valued genetics. Bob then continued to set world record individual prices for animals, world record sale averages and world record sale grosses for top breeder's sales and consignment sales in Canada and the United States. He "retired" from active auctioneering in 1994.
Bob was a founding member of the Canadian Livestock Exporters Association and excelled in opening world markets for various species and breeds. A few of the marketing activities he has initiated include supplying: UK farmers with Canadian Holsteins to replace their cattle lost to Foot and Mouth disease; dairy heifers to establish a breeding herd in India; the first shipment of Simmental beef cattle to Brazil; and the first shipment of frozen embryos imported to Japan.
Bob Shore takes great pains to support and develop people in pursuing their dreams in all aspects of the livestock industry and beyond. He considers his biggest accomplishment to be the fact that Shore Holsteins International is a "family business" in which his wife, children and brothers have all been actively involved. He has also assisted livestock agents, auctioneers, breeders, photographers, merchandisers, 4-H clubs, marathons, disaster funds, service clubs and the Canadian Hunger Association.
