I like to think of myself as a super-organized person. As such, I have created resources not only for producers, school farm managers, & ag teachers, but I've also created resources for other livestock veterinarians. Okay, if I'm being honest, I created them for myself & am ready to share them with other veterinarians.
Why am I sharing this with you?
Because perhaps one of the largest hurdles to a well run school farm is finding a veterinarian to be part of your management team. In general, livestock veterinarians like to stay within their comfort zone & usually that means they work on cattle (maybe even limiting themselves to specifically dairy or beef cattle), horses, or are "mixed animal" practitioners, which means they see a little bit of everything.
But school farms are difficult clients for a few reasons:
There are almost always more than one species on the premises, which can create biosecurity challenges
There are almost always more than one owner since students are often responsible for their own project animals, which can make billing & medication sales a challenge - should I sell a whole bottle of something for one animal?
There's a lot of teaching involved, as most school farm managers, ag teachers, & students are not familiar with proper animal health techniques, medication use, identifying disease, etc
That being said, it's very rewarding to be a veterinarian on these teams when the kids make it back from fair, having had a great experience & learning from working with their animal.
So maybe you have a veterinarian who begrudgingly helps you out. Maybe you know a vet who's hesitant because they just really don't know where to start. Maybe you have a super experienced vet who is looking for some new resources.
In any case, we're opening up a veterinarian-specific shop with resources to help livestock veterinarians make their day in the truck a little smoother. All they have to do is sign up for an account (Sign Up in the upper right corner) & click Yes for "Are you a licensed veterinarian?" We'll then go through, confirm they're a vet, & they'll have access to our Veterinary Resource Center (plus get a FREE download in the process).
So let your vet know!
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