THE Royal Adelaide Show doesn't hand out the title of Show Legend lightly, but after more than six decades of involvement, veteran pigeon breeder Leith Jenkins has earned the feather in his cap.
The 79-year-old Riverton resident - who is currently chair of the pigeon and poultry section of the show, has been involved since 1956.
In that time, he has served as a show councillor from 1975-2015, led the Royal Show Parade for 10 years and ran the animal nursery for 29 years.
Leith said he had been interested in pigeons ever since he was a young boy.
"I grew up on a farm that had paddock pigeons and I caught them and kept them in straw sheds as a hobby," he said.
In 1951 he met Jack Willis - one of Australia's leading breeders at the time, who gave him two pairs of pigeons and helped get him into breeding and the show community.
Leith said the art of pigeon breeding was all about breeding birds with a certain body, head shape, colour, leg shape and condition.
"It's all about finding the right parents to create the standard you want to breed to," he said.
He has around 160 pigeons today and a key focus of his work is breeding new colours and reduced colour breeds - he has succeeded in breeding the bars on either side of each wing off blue bar pigeons.
Leith has had a number of career highlights including being asked to judge at numerous Royal Shows throughout Australia.
I'd be lost without my pigeons. I've had a lot of interests in life, but my pigeons have always been there for me.
He has also encountered some challenges, including struggling to create new bloodlines until import restrictions were lifted in 1993, which he said greatly improved the standards of birds.
The show has also changed a great deal since he first became involved - when he started the pigeon and poultry displays took place in a plain tin shed with a dirt floor, but nowadays they have one of the best facilities in Australia.
"The presentation covers country people, city people, there's something there for everybody," he said.
This year's show will take place at The Adelaide Showground from August 30 to September 8.
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