A big concern hitting farmers today is the lack of farm veterinarians. With baby boomers retiring, the profession is quickly vanishing.
Many large-animal vets are moving to small-animal practices because in places like North Dakota, it is not uncommon to travel over 100 miles to get to a patient.
KFYR in North Dakota took an in depth look at Kirk Johnson, a large-animal veterinarian outside of Mandan. As one of the only large-animal vets in the area, Johnson travels hours to get to his patients- at all hours of the day.
“We still have some herd work we need to do, and try to sneak out three, four hours a day to try to get some of that done, and we`re trying to leave two, three, four hours every day so I can fit in the emergency schedules,” said Johnson.
Farm vets cover anything from the birth of calves to vaccinations. The long-distance calls are often hard when there is terrible weather, especially like this past winter.
The American Veterinary Medical Association said the large-animal vets make up less than 10 percent of private-practice veterinarians. Most vets are turning to easier animals like cats and dogs, the practices that make more money.
“In the next 10 years, we`re going to see quite a few of these older vets retire, and we need to find some bodies to fill those positions,” said Johnson.
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