I believe it was either 1977 or 1978, myself and 4 friends piled in a car and headed to Mankato KS to Beef Genetics Research, Inc, owned by Richard( D--K) Judy. The main purpose of the trip was to see the Irish Shorthorn cattle that we had heard that he had imported.We had just imported our first Irish cattle ourselves and we had heard from the Irish breeders that they had sent a shipment to the US. We learned about the Irish Shorthorns from a friend who had gone to Ireland to see the farm where his grandfather was born. It happened to be very close to the Deerpark herd, and he brought back a bunch of pictures of the cattle he had seen on the trip. When he returned home, he called myself and another friend, and asked us if we would like to see his pictures. We met in a hotel room in Regina, SK, where he showed us his slides on the hotel wall. It was that night that we made a decision to import some of these cattle, and within a few hours of that meeting, we had struck a deal with John Maloney in Ireland for a bull and 3 females. The bull was Highfield Irish Mist, and he cost us a grand total of just under $300. This purchase price included the testing and isolation costs in Ireland. We were to pay all costs from the time he left Ireland. He arrived in Canada, was quarantined on an island in the St Lawrence River, in Quebec, then trucked 2200 miles west and quarantined for an addition 6 weeks near Edmonton AB. When we finally had Mist home and added up the total costs, we had spent $2000 . Four year later we imported our second bull from Ireland, which was IDS Duke of Dublin. This time it cost us over $30,000 to purchase the bull and get him to Canada. He arrived in the fall, and we decided to display him at the Denver show. We left Denver with over $40,000 in semen orders from the show alone.
It was on this trip to Mankato KS, that we saw Deerpark Improver, Deerpark Dividend and several of the other original Irish Shorthorn imports. BGR also had imported several Simmental and Fresian cattle from Ireland and G Britain. One of the highlight of the trip that I remember was a pasture of about 50 Fresian and Fresian cross yearling heifers. They were excellent females and we commented many times afterwards, that if they were not black and white colored they could become a very popular breed. The Fresian cattle impressed me greatly.