By Cheryl Jahn

Livestock vet attention welcome

Dec 17, 2024 | 3:20 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Approximately 4,086 cattle ranches operate in the province, making up five per cent of Canada’s national cow herd. According to Statistics Canada, as of July 1st of last year, the BC cattle industry had over 600,000 head of cattle, mostly beef cattle. But there aren’t enough livestock veterinarians to service those numbers.

“We’re lucky in or around Prince George, because we have enough large animal practitioners around here that the need here isn’t quite as great as it would be if you lived in Vanderhoof,” explains Tom deWaal, President of the PG Cattlemen’s Association. “So we are finding that our veterinarians here have to go farther afield to look after some of those regions as well.”

But the province has committed to changing that, music to the ears of the Regional District of Fraser Fort George.

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“We’ve certainly been working on this for a number of years and the province has listened and they’re really starting to help,” says Lara Beckett, Board Chair for the regional district.

DeWaal says the challenge is that a host of vets may be trained, but they don’t want the heavy lifting.

“Large animal practitioners are generally those that are getting calls at 2:00 in the morning by grumpy farmers like myself who are having a calving issue. And you know, I’m sure it’s a very, very nice industry, but small animals, they generally come to you between nine and five.”

While livestock veterinarians are a priority right now, we still need companion veterinarians. And of course, we absolutely need a veterinary school.

“There was some money for interns, the students, to come work up in this area to support the clinics, to bring those students, help them with some travel money and that kind of thing. That program is continuing again. So that’s one more step. A vet school would be our ultimate goal. We still want to see that and so keep working for it.”

deWaal says something most people don’t consider when they think about a shortage of livestock veterinarians, they don’t consider food safety. The most recent outbreak of avian flu is a classic example.

“If you don’t have those professionals available to identify that stuff, forget about just what happens at the ground level. Like, ‘Oh, Tom has a cow that has a problem calving. We need to have a veterinarian on hand.’ Yes, that’s true. We need that. But we also need to have those professionals in place for food safety.”

The program will place northern B.C. as its number one priority region for supporting and attracting livestock vets.