But he was starting to question his chosen career path, too. Following a weekend at home, Pollard passed the veterinary clinic in Hennessey with three semis lined up to unload cattle to be castrated, dehorned, vaccinated and turned out on wheat pasture. 

“And I thought to myself, ‘I just did all that for my dad this weekend myself, and do I really want to come out here and have three semis waiting on me to do all that work after I go through a large education process?’”

Another memory added to the doubt. At his dad’s urging he shadowed a local veterinarian the day a sick cow tore through a farmer’s dilapidated facilities, ripping the barn door off, never to be seen again. 

Pollard laughs, “I went back and looked at those worms in that jar Sunday night and thought, ‘You know what, I think I’ll go to medical school.’”

The doctor

While a medical student at the University of Oklahoma, Pollard settled on neurosurgery. 

“It was kind of a challenge,” he says. “Nobody else in class really wanted to do that because it was such a challenge, and people just shied away from it … I fell in love with the field and decided that’s what I wanted to do.”

He completed a residency in neurosurgery and began practicing in 1982 in Oklahoma City, but knew he didn’t want to live in a city.

My roots are in rural America, and I knew I wanted to be part of agriculture. Practicing in big hospitals down there wasn’t that appealing to me. If I could do everything I wanted to do in a smaller location and have an opportunity to raise my family in a smaller environment and have agriculture as part of their growing up, that was my desire.” — Barry Pollard

Pollard took notice of the large number of people who came to Oklahoma City from the northwest part of the state for neurosurgical procedures. 

“It was huge. It was more than one doctor could ever do,” he says. 

He began to look into Enid, Okla. He would have access to the rural way of life but also the capacity to be a “two-and-a-half neurosurgeon town.” He decided to open a practice and build a staff to serve the community. 

“We formed a really good team,” he says. “We took care of people like they need to be taken care of. The rest just kind of all evolved. We had a very successful practice, had a huge following.” 

Eventually he got a partner and then another, but was back down to just himself for the final 10 years of the practice before retiring in 2022. 

While the new technology coming to the field during his four decades as a surgeon kept his interest, it was helping his patients relieve pain that made his profession rewarding. 

“There was a great satisfaction for me to take care of so many people in a farming community, in a working environment who really needed help to get them back on track to do their job or to fulfill their family obligations,” he explains, noting the majority of neurosurgery practice is spine work. 

The Angus breeder

As Pollard built his practice, he also invested in farm ground and leasing ground. He got into the cattle business by way of a stocker operation, but it proved to be too routine of a business model for him.

“I started seeing this Angus Journal and reading about Angus cattle, and with the background in genetics and having the ability to build your own type of herd — it’s more scientific,” he says. 

Pollard recruited help from Eddie Sims to identify some Angus females to purchase. He jokes that Eddie, “who was big in the Hereford and Angus business as an auctioneer,” kept showing up with more Herefords than Angus. 

“I finally called him and said, ‘I said some Angus and a few Herefords, and now all I see are Herefords.’ So we got back on track just going after good Angus cattle.” 

Pollard quickly fell in love with the Angus breed, Angus events and Angus people. 

“But what really attracted me was the ability to create your own herd the way you want,” he says. “That burning desire has never stopped in my life. I still want to do that all the time.”

What started as a hobby has grown into Pollard Farms, a sizeable 1,000-head Angus operation with two annual sales, a small team, 5,000 acres of wheat and about 1,000 acres each of corn and soybeans.

Pollard and ranch manager Jeremy Leister work together to decide matings for the herd using artificial insemination (AI). They also each bring a list to fill out sale lots, and oftentimes are on the same page for those decisions. 

“I still strive to just design the best herd I can, and we have,” he says, noting he focuses first on phenotype and then puts selection pressure on traits like birth weight, growth, marbling and maternal traits like mothering ability and udder composition. “We use all the data we can … to try to make the right matings and raise the best ones.”

The best is what Pollard strives for — black cattle and green tractors.

The equipment dealer

In the early ’80s, the agriculture industry was in rough times and farm equipment dealers were also burdened. His local John Deere dealership in Kingfisher wasn’t performing well. Pollard’s father connected him with Wendell Kirtley, who had years of experience in managing dealerships. Staying true to his rural roots and desire for a challenge, Pollard, along with Kirtley, took a calculated risk in buying the Kingfisher location, and P&K Equipment was formed. 

“It wasn’t easy,” he says. “Those were not good times. It seems like I was just continuing to pour money into it to pay salaries and keep the business going for about two years. Wendell was a good manager and a good person, and we got some good employees and things started turning around.”

Years later they acquired the Enid location — the first time in Oklahoma any John Deere dealer owned two sizable dealerships. As the industry evolved, and mergers happened, P&K continued to grow. 

Today P&K has 20 locations in Oklahoma and Arkansas and nine locations in P&K Midwest in Iowa and Illinois, and employs more than 800. 

One man, three businesses — how does he do it all? 

It’s all about finding people who have a passion for what they do, have a respect for each other and can work as a team. If you can put that together, then there’s not much you can’t accomplish.” — Barry Pollard

Core members of his team include his family: wife, Roxanne; his three sons, Roxanne’s three daughters and their families, including 11 grandchildren. 

It’s the people who depend on him, from patients and employees to bull customers, that keep him motivated. Preparing a way for the next generation of agriculturists, however, is yet another of Pollard’s passions.

He sees youth in the Angus family as a bright spot, and deserving of time and resources. 

“Kids are developing work ethic, and they learn responsibility,” he says. “You look across our country and see what’s going on, and you realize our country’s failing in so many respects about how the children are raised. I can’t control all that, but I can give to the things that I see are doing it right. So, my giving of the [2025 Angus Foundation Heifer] to raise money for the Angus youth, the donations I’ve made to the Angus Foundation, I’ve done with that mission in mind as it goes to help those programs to create opportunity for kids in agriculture.”

This November, Pollard retires as president and chairman of the American Angus Association. 

Does he plan to slow down? Admittedly, he says probably not. His retired peers from the medical field are playing golf and hunting. 

“Heck,” he laughs, “Yesterday I ran a tractor all day long.”

In that tractor, however, is often where he lets his mind idle.

“Going off the Board will give me a little bit more free time,” he says. “But it’s really hard for me to relax, and it’s really hard for me to sit very long. The grandkids are the best thing that I’ve got going for that. They’re so active. I think, ‘Man, am I going to be able to keep up with them?’”

But maybe the true question will be, can they keep up with him?