The barrage of BBC news alerts that have popped up on my phone over the past few years have surpassed any soap opera. It has meant ample topics to choose from when chatting to clients as I have a hand inside a cow, trying to find a pylorus. Over the past few weeks though, the chat has drifted back towards the weather, and this does correlate with fewer news alerts. The current news may not be so sensational, but this blip of political stability is allowing issues that affect the day-to-day running of the country and people's lives to be addressed.
The strike action of public workers is a polarising topic, but the reasoning behind people's discontent is being discussed and many of the issues concerning nurses and teachers are the same as we face within the veterinary industry (us vets are not as unique as we thought we were!). Pay, working conditions and staff retention are some of the hot topics within the farm animal veterinary profession and that is why the non-clinical forum article (p134) on recruitment of potential farm vets should be of interest to all our readers this month.
We all have an opinion on why Gen Z don't want to be farm vets. It is important to acknowledge the barriers that are preventing those from joining our sector of the profession and not be dismissive of their concerns, especially social issues which we can educate each other on so that all may feel welcome within the farm veterinary community. Other barriers may be more difficult to overcome without changing the current role of the practicing farm vet. Would we still meet the needs of our clientele by doing so? We must remember that we are a client-facing job.
What I would say is that having seen the results of the recent Society for Practicing Veterinary Surgeons salary survey, and after flicking through the back pages of Vet Record looking at jobs in farm veterinary practice, education, and government work, it does not pay to enter the farm veterinary sector. How do we draw people into our profession with lower pay than the average veterinary salary and longer and more irregular hours?
What I feel needs to be shouted about when trying to promote the farm veterinary profession is the variety of jobs that fall under the umbrella of ‘farm vet.’ This edition of Livestock barely scratches the surface of what some of us get up to, but I hope it introduces any new readers to some of the possibilities out there. Farm vetting is not just cows but also sheep, goats, pigs and camelids. The husbandry of farmed species underpins so much of what we do, but we are always modifying this and continue to learn together as we seek to uphold and improve upon our standards of animal welfare. ‘Regeneration’ and ‘sustainability’ are not just buzzwords, but a sign that we as a profession, alongside the agricultural sector, are moving forward and adapting our skills so that we are still here and relevant in years to come.
The role of a farm vet will always be evolving, even if a revolution doesn't happen. My advice to any students and new graduates reading this is that, even though the new extramural studies (EMS) requirements may not require you to see all types of practice and gain the transferable skills that can be applied across all species, please give farm EMS a go before making judgements on the people you work with and the lifestyle and career path it provides. It may just surprise you.