Recipient Organization
Clay Veterinary Clnic LLC
423 Franklin St
Clay Center,KS 674321551
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The goal at Clay Veterinary Clinic is to relieve the veterinary shortage in Cloud, Washigton, and Clay Countiesby providing medical services, consulting, education and herd health programs to area livestock owners. Routine and preventative medicine along with education are key to better overall herd health and profitability, as well as sustainability for our clients. Updating and expanding our mobile veterinary equipment will allow for increased efficiency and safer handling of animals, improved staff time management and increased client education. In the long run, these improvements will aid in ensuring the health of our nation's vital food supply. The chief problem we face in our practice area is the sheer number of small producers who completely forego herd health or process their own cattle. There are many reasons for producer behavior such as no working facilities, lack of preventative education, unwillingness to modernize/change their practices, veterinarian shortages or no relationship with a veterinarian. This behavior results in the suspension of important preventative measures in animal health leading to increased animal morbidity and mortality as well as threat of possible disease outbreak. Impacts from this behavior at the producer's level affect revenue and business all the way up through the entire Kansas beef industry. This is a very serious situation for many of our food and fiber animal producers especially since animal herd numbers continue to rise.It is vital for veterinarians to be involved in herd processing toprovide appropriate disease prevention and treatmentrecognize any reportable diseasesreport any outbreaksensure proper handling of our food supply. The 2017 Census of Agriculture data reported that there are 547 farms in Clay County, 412 farms in Cloud County, and 694 farms in Washington County. The three counties combined have a total head count of 136,470 cattle and calves, 1344 goats, and an estimated 1422 sheep and lambs (numbers not available for Cloud County) on a total of 2256 square miles of land. This large geographic area is being serviced by only five large animal/mixed veterinary hospitals with about 17 practicing large animal veterinarians. This is a cattle to practitioner ratio 10615:1. With the goal of expanding services as well as the service area, a full-time veterinarian and veterinary assistant/technician will be necessary for daily operations.With the addition of more veterinarians and mobile equipment, we hope to reach those cattle operations that are currently going without proper routine care or necessary preventative medicine. Many producers in our area do not have efficient working facilities limiting the number of cattle that can be worked in a day. This presents another problem as updating livestock handling equipment is not always a priority for producers. This problem is coupled with the steady aging of many our producers who are also not interested in financially investing in their facilities. This can be solved by using our modern portable equipment allowing us to work cattle more efficiently, increase daily productivity, decrease stress on the animals, help motivate and retain veterinarians, and improve safety especially when compared to the less efficient working systems of most of our clients. The nature of cattle work is seasonal therefore increased efficiency during this time leads to more timely service for our clients, increased customer satisfaction, and more importantly, better care of the animals. Lastly, an additional problem we face is a lack of local educational opportunities for our community. We would like to provide area programs tailored to our producers' needs, schools, 4-H and FFA groups. Providing these programs and showing our equipment to producers will not only improve the veterinary-producer client relationship; it will also improve compliance, educate producers on up-to-date health protocols and food animal safety procedures as well as encourage preventative medicine. With exceptional facilities, our clinic will be more appealing to prospective students and future associates. Expanding and updating the equipment in Clay Center, KS will allow for greater service to this underserved region of Kansas. Currently, the veterinarians in this area do not have reliable portable equipment and therefore must use the producers' facilities. Most of these facilities are old, unsafe, and inefficient. Our first purchases will be a portable hydraulic Silencer/Pearson chute, a reliable heavy-duty pick-up truck with a veterinary box for equipment and pharmaceuticals, a portable tub and alleyway, and portable corral to aid producers with catching their cattle and ease flow into the chute. This equipment will immediately improve the ability of the veterinarian to process the animals and allow for a safer working environment for everyone involved leading to greater longevity of the practitioner and success of the client. Because of the beneficial outcomes due to the use of new equipment and methods, a chain reaction of positive and confident communication between producers will result. Producers will realize the benefits of using superior equipment and veterinary services. Our client base and service area will greatly expand and more animals will receive the herd health programs they desperately require. Additional equipment such as the microscope and ultrasound can then be introduced to our clients who are entrusted to our care. As a result, we will be able to help modernize and streamline producers' current herd health programs saving them money, time and energy while simultaneously enhancing their efficiency and profitability. The scope of what will be required to meet our proposed objectives would be by measuring the actual numbers. Our veterinary medical software will measure the numbers of cattle processed (cows and calves), pregnancy checks, bull breeding soundness exams, emergency dystocias, farm calls and new clients reached. As a result, we will be able to continue our current growth and expand our availability to clients in all these areas. The success of preventative health can be measured by the sales of both vaccines and various large animal services. We aim to continue increasing the sale and use of our vaccines, services, and cattle anthelmintics by building the confidence in our producers who use our supported preventative measures while at the same time decreasing the sale of antibiotics and other treatments. The dynamic between the two types of therapeutics will continue to fluctuate however measuring the sales of these products will aid in keeping track of our success. If awarded this grant, we will be able to start offering education programs to schools. Although we currently have students visiting our practice, we would like to expand and partner with universities in the area like Kansas State University to provide credited externships and educational opportunities highlighting the rewards of rural practice. The current interest of veterinary students in rural is alarmingly low. By promoting the rural practice setting, we hope to inspire student interest in pursuing the field of rural mixed or large animal veterinary science. We would also partner with local schools from elementary level up to high school proving educational programs at Clay Center area schools including: Lincoln Elementary, Garfield Elementary, Clay Center Community Middle School, Clay Center Community High School as well as schools in Wakefield and Clifton-Clyde. The programs for local schools will introduce children to rural veterinary medicine by promoting future interest and allowing greater educational access to this field. We will also start offering educational programs for 4-H and FFA clubs to guide children towards a career in veterinary medicine while cultivating a love of a rural community.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Clay Veterinary Clinic's major goal is to continueto relieve the veterinary shortage in situation KS232 by providing medical/surgical services, education, consulting, and herd health programs to area livestock owners and employing a VMLRP recipient. Routine and preventative medicine along with education are key to better overall herd health and profitability, as well as sustainability for our clients and our nation's food supply.Updating and expanding our mobile veterinary equipment will allow for increased efficiency and safer handling of animals, improved staff time management and increased client education. In the long run, these improvements will aid in ensuring the health of our nation's vital food supply. This grant will allow us to provide exceptional preventive care and herd health programs for a larger geographic area even with the difficulty of hiring new veterinarians. Objective one includes expanding our mobile veterinary equipment for increased efficiency and safer handling of animals, improved time management, increased client education, and strengthening the veterinarian-client relationship. Modern mobile equipment will give clients access to the underserved animals due to the unavailability of proper facilities.Objective #1: Expanding our mobile veterinary equipment for increased areas reached, efficient and safer handling of animals, improved time management, increased client communication, and strengthening the veterinarian-client relationship. Equipment would include a reliable veterinary truck with utility box purchased and operable immediately, portable hydraulic chute ordered upon grant monies received (there is a 3-6-month fabrication period before delivery), portable high-quality microscope purchased immediately for fall BSEs, portable ultrasound purchased immediately for fall pregnancy checks. With the added equipment, we will be able to process and vaccinate more animals effectively throughout the seasons allowing greater protection against disease outbreaks through vaccination and potential breaks in food safety management. Using time-saving equipment in the field will result in an increased focus on veterinary consultations with producers. It is imperative that producers, regardless of herd size, have access to knowledgeable veterinarians, and for veterinarians to be involved in herd processing to provide appropriate disease prevention and treatment, recognize any reportable diseases, report any outbreaks, and ensure proper handling of our food supply. Objective two is to provide educational opportunities to producers and local students with meetings, externships, and school visits. Our underserved clientele will be more educated and able to care for their animals. With an increased consulting role, a food animal veterinarian can use all their professional skills and education to help producers feed the world by safeguarding animal health. We want to offer programs for local students to highlight the importance of rural veterinary medicine and how it impacts our nation's food supply, and to encourage the career of a food animal veterinarian.Objective #2: Strengthen the VCPR by providing enhanced educational opportunities for both current and future cattle producers as well as educational opportunities to students in the area. The goal is to increase the veterinarian's role in promoting preventative medicine and implementing better management practices through client education, and aid in the production of future rural practitioners by reaching and engaging students at the critical stages of their education. This will increase our community involvement, encourage a stronger veterinarian-client relationship, and reach those producers currently not using a veterinarian. In year one, we have plans for outreach to area producers alongside our research and extension team. Once accessing producer interests and needs, our goal is an introductory meeting in mid fall 2024 held at the clinic where we can showcase our new equipment and what services we can offer them. In years two and three, we will continue outreach with more producer meetings, dinners, lectures, roundtables and even demonstrations. Through community and school involvement we can engage students while they are still in high school and inspire interest in food and fiber animal medicine. Currently, we have a senior high school student who has applied to veterinary technician school completing a work study. We would like to expand on this opportunity and open it up to more students to foster greater interest in rural veterinary careers. In years one and two, more intentional outreach educational activities to the area's schools, and local 4-H and FFA clubs. Outreach will begin early fall 2024 with a clinic visit for interested students where we can showcase our building, equipment, and services. Starting in spring 2025, we'd like to provide exceptional externship opportunities to current or prospective veterinary students to strengthen their interest in rural practice. Outreach will continue over the next three to five years to develop a school relationship and possible permanent position as an educational hub for students and clients. Objective three is to attract a future associate to provide the exceptional animal care we pride ourselves on. Our approach is to offer exceptional equipment, seasonal workload balance, competitive pay, and an effective working environment. Supporting an optimal work-life balance maintains the level of mental health needed to thrive in this profession.Objective #3: Hire and retain a full-time veterinarian who will aid in the day-to-day operation of the clinic as well as assistance out in the field. This will increase the seasonal workload balance, efficiency of the practice, retention of staff, and a healthy work-life balance. The goal for hiring a new associate is June 2025 due to the increase in demand and prospective retirement of a current associate. The goals of this objective are fourfold, to improve efficiency and safety allowing them to practice high-quality medicine, increase the number of clients being served daily with improved equipment, enhance owner compliance with availability of a knowledgeable veterinarian, and improve and maintain a healthy work-life balance through better time-management. The grant will be an incentive to retain our current VMLRP and VTPRK recipients and new associates beyond the obligatory years of service by making us more attractive as a practice showing we are invested in the success of our practice by continuing to expand and advance our services.
Project Methods
Expanding and updating the equipment in Clay Center, KS will allow for greater service to this underserved region of Kansas as stated in our first objective. Currently, the veterinarians in this area do not have reliable portable equipment and therefore must rely on producers' facilities. Most of these facilities are outdated, unsafe, and inefficient. Our first purchases will be a portable hydraulic Silencer/Pearson chute and a reliable pick-up truck and a veterinary/utility box for equipment and pharmaceuticals. This will aid producers in safe restraint of their cattle and ease work flow. This equipment will immediately improve the ability of the veterinarian to process the animals within the short seasonal timeframe available and allow for a safer working environment for everyone involved, in the long runs this leads to increased longevity of the practitioner and success of the client. Because of the beneficial outcomes of new equipment and methods, a chain reaction of positive and confident communication between producers will result. A strong VCPR with our producers that fosters education is a necessary factor in their success and vital in safeguarding our nation's food supply, an example of this is obtaining a VFD. We pride ourselves on being a resource and an asset to our clients, community, and nation by fulfilling USDA's mission to increase security of the food supply and protect public health. Another facet of objective one is our client base and service area will greatly benefit, and more animals will receive the herd health programs they desperately require. Additional equipment such as the microscope and ultrasound can then be introduced to our clients who are entrusted to our care. This equipment would help improve bull breeding soundness exams, making this service more enticing to new and current clientele. Producers can make better management decisions if they know their animals' pregnancy status sooner, and this can increase their profitability. As a result, we will be able to help modernize and streamline producers' current herd health programs, saving them money, time and energy while simultaneously enhancing their efficiency and profitability. It is critical to perform an annual breeding soundness exam on bulls to ensure the success of the subsequent calf crop. The costs of a rancher's use of subfertile bulls can lead to losses in terms of pounds of weaning weight per calf, feeding and grazing efficiency, and drawn-out calving seasons, every time a cow fails to conceive. These improvements in service will allow us to be expert leaders in our industry and community while sustaining the veterinary profession in the area. By reaching more producers in a timely manner we have a better chance of maintaining a vital educational role in their operations, safeguarding animal health, thereby minimizing unnecessary animal morbidity and mortality. Using our new equipment for current and future clientele will also improve cattle handling. We anticipate using this equipment for educational purposes as stated in our second objective, working with local extension offices to hold animal handling demonstrations and producer meetings to discuss the value of low stress livestock handling. Hosting events for new and current producers will give us the opportunity to educate outside our normal environment and discuss the value of what we can bring to their operation. At these meetings we can introduce topics not normally discussed on the farm like genetics, marketing, nutrition, and most importantly what to do in the event of a suspected disease outbreak. With our proximity to Fort Riley, Kansas State University, NBAF, and Milford State Park it is imperative that a reliable disease surveillance program be in place, implemented by our knowledgeable veterinarians. If awarded this grant, we plan to expand current education programs to local schools and clubs like 4-H and FFA. We would partner with local schools from elementary level up to high school providing educational programs at Clay Center area schools including Lincoln Elementary, Garfield Elementary, Clay Center Community Middle School, and Clay Center Community High School. We currently have first through third graders visiting the practice every September during their Agriculture Days Program. We will invite students back in the spring for a live demonstration and to refresh what they saw in the fall. We also intend to expand educational exposure programs for high school juniors and seniors, 4-H and FFA clubs to encourage interest in a career in food and fiber animal medicine while cultivating a love of a rural community. We have investigated the Youth for the Quality Care of Animals (YQCA) training program and believe live demonstrations of low-stress animal handling will help instill the importance of VCPR in our area within year one. With proximity to a largely agriculture-based university and large animal focused students at its veterinary college, we have a unique opportunity to make a tremendous impact in forming future rural practitioners. This will provide them with mentorship, hands-on experience, and exposure to multiple procedures and herd health in a mixed animal setting, which are not always available in school. Only 5% of all graduating veterinary students in the country are going into rural large animal practice according to a 2022 Progressive Cattle article, which puts sustainability of rural practices like ours in jeopardy. We hope to inspire student interest in pursuing the field of rural mixed or large animal veterinary medicine, not only in our shortage area but those in the state and around the country too. Lastly, with the new equipment and technology comes the need for more help to use it as stated in objective three. Adding a veterinarian will further increase productivity and allow for better time management, client communication, and workload balance. A few examples of how we plan to hire are by attending the KSU CVM job fair, posting on AVMA and KSUCVM job boards, and having externs from KSU CVM come visit. An additional veterinarian will improve work-life balance, which is a struggle today with smaller rural practices. According to a 2021 AVMA report, 38% of vets are considering leaving the profession. The top reason for this consideration is work-life balance. To be successful as a practice, we want to provide an environment where staff can thrive, and this grant can help us achieve this goal with the ability to hire another veterinarian to assist with the caseload.