The Proactive Practitioner Mirror Changes & Adapt

While I sincerely believe agriculture has a bright future, we as rural food animal practitioners are facing a new set of challenges we'll need to address. Six years ago, when I authored a perspective for another industry publication, I was pretty confident our practice was on the right track and had all the answers. Today I don't have the answers I did back in 2006-just a lot more questions. While I don't necessarily view all of the issues outlined here as negatives, they are challenges that we, as practitioners, need to overcome. It's my belief that the rural mixed animal practitioner is not the dinosaur that many in the ivory towers of education portray us to be, but the ultimate in adapting and evolving to our economic climate. Herd work is the primary reason why we now go out into the country. Our investments have been in our haul-in facilities. I don't think we're unique there, but that facility has been the most steadfast for servicing the smaller producer, as well as for all semen testing on bulls and equine work, because it basically saves us another pickup and veterinarian and allows us to spend more time generating revenue.