LONG before he stood behind a microphone calling poultry lots by the hundred, Kerang's Geoff Davey was just a kid tagging along to the Melbourne Show, wide-eyed at the sight of ribbons, sheep, and spectacle.

"I always went with my parents," he recalled.

"Dad used to show down there. I suppose I just got the bug early."

That "bug" turned into a lifetime commitment — one woven with grit, humili...