caledon.... you brought back many memories with your comments on Bar 5. For about 10 years, I spent a month at Bar 5 before their sales. I would spend 2 weeks there and then go home for a week, then return for 2 weeks before the sale. As most of the Bar 5 owners were formally Shorthorn breeders, I knew them all very well.
The owners of Bar 5 were some of the most progressive cattle breeders I have ever met. They had some amazing sales, and had the first million dollar sale in the Simmental breed. After that sale, I was sitting with John and Mac Draper, and John said that it was a great sale, but no one knew that they still needed to gather another $750,000 to so that Bar 5 would show a profit that year. The day following the sale, we trucked cattle back to the ranch and John Draper spent most of his time on the phone. Someone mentioned to him that the Rockefeller family in New York were interested in starting a Simmental herd. John was on a plane the next morning to New York and met with Mrs Rockefeller. Two days later, he returned to Brandon, MB accompanied by Mrs. Rockefeller, and before she had left,she had purchased over $900,000 of cattle. That was the start of the Hudson Pines herd.
