The Silent Crisis In The Livestock Industry
One of the outcomes of society where kids are overweight and indoors is the decline in occupations that are outdoors and require stamina... like large animal veterinarians. I’m Susan Allen when OpenRange returns the job shortage that could devastate the livestock industry. One fall out from the fact most Americans are now several generations removed from farming is that only two percent of the 2010 graduating class of veterinary students have elected to work with horses and livestock. One apparent reason is the fact that the majority of today’s under thirty set would rather reside in cities and suburbs than remote locations. For those rare individuals that are drawn to an outdoor lifestyle often there simply aren’t enough animals in ranch country to provide a lucrative practice when compared to the caseloads flooding vets in urban clinics. Thus the shortage and why it’s becoming tougher and tougher to recruit. The solution, “show me the money”. There has been talk within the beef industry of offering financial incentives to draw students into large animal practices. Currently several bills are being introduced including the Veterinary Services Investment Act that passed the House in September and is designed to provide funding both for recruiting and financial assistance for veterinary students whose average dept upon graduating is $130,000. At this moment half of large animal vets throughout the nation are over 50 and only 4.4 percent are under thirty, we’ve got a crisis brewing.
