Icon retiring from State Fair livestock shows
Bruce Shankle, whose career in livestock marketing spans 40 years, is retiring as livestock marketing director with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and as director of the N.C. State Fair livestock shows. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, who refers to Shankle as an icon in North Carolina’s livestock industry, keeps trying to talk him out of retiring, but so far his pleas haven’t worked. Shankle grew up on a livestock farm in Anson County, but didn’t get his first taste of State Fair livestock shows until he was a freshman at N.C. State University. On Oct. 15, he…