Vets no longer working in outlying area

crofteress

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have/ had very good vets for the last 6 years. They have written to all farm/ equine clients saying they are no longer going to be our vets as the distance is too far for out of hours work. There are a lot of us , this is recent as of two days ago. There is another practise but so far have not heard back .Does anyone know if there are legalities if we can't find alternative . Obv you can't farm with out a vet
 

Top Tip.

Member
Location
highland
I have/ had very good vets for the last 6 years. They have written to all farm/ equine clients saying they are no longer going to be our vets as the distance is too far for out of hours work. There are a lot of us , this is recent as of two days ago. There is another practise but so far have not heard back .Does anyone know if there are legalities if we can't find alternative . Obv you can't farm with out a vet
Really sorry to hear this , could I ask which vets you are with PM me if you prefer.
 

Netherfield

Member
Location
West Yorkshire
I imagine it's only going to get harder in the future, can't get vets who want large animal/late night/weekend work.

Our local vets 20 years ago had 12 or so on farm works, 4 retired now, 4 in their 60s ready for retiring, and now with an area maybe 20 miles from one end to the other.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
I have/ had very good vets for the last 6 years. They have written to all farm/ equine clients saying they are no longer going to be our vets as the distance is too far for out of hours work.
Obv you can't farm with out a vet

Would they still be willing to do regular daytime visits, or are they reducing their practice area and completely stopping farm / equine cover ?
 

crofteress

Member
Livestock Farmer
Would they still be willing to do regular daytime visits, or are they reducing their practice area and completely stopping farm / equine cover ?
They are reducing their practice area but the reasons given in the letter are that it is due to out of hours and distance when doing out of hours
 

Tamar

Member
One problem is that there are too many female vets.

Nothing against female vets as we have had some very good ones.

Finish collage at 25 years old. Do vet work for 4 or 5 years, then start a family and leave the profession.

James Heriot era, it was all men that were vets until they retired or died !
 
85% of Vet school graduated female with a shelf life of 5 years according to an acquaintance of mine, formerly the principal partner in a major vet group. Seems a waste of five years plus of study and a massive student loan debt. Something wrong with the admissions process in my view.
I just don't think there are the guys to do it, it seems to have become woman's work.
 
I have/ had very good vets for the last 6 years. They have written to all farm/ equine clients saying they are no longer going to be our vets as the distance is too far for out of hours work. There are a lot of us , this is recent as of two days ago. There is another practise but so far have not heard back .Does anyone know if there are legalities if we can't find alternative . Obv you can't farm with out a vet
It's not just remote areas, we're not far from Edinburgh and two fairly large practices have given up farm animals and horses.
Luckily the university aren't far away and they are taking up the slack, otherwise we'd be struggling to get a vet to come to us.
The problem is that the University are now becoming stretched and are having to cover a very large area with one on call vet.
 

crofteress

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have spoken to two practises since, both short staffed and one can offer routine work and also out of hours cover but he's the only vet so scenario of him being in theatre while an emergency in the field could happen. He told me that all practises have a duty of care and in an emergency situation the next practise are obliged to attend if your own vet can't. I dont know how well this works in reality
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
In our area there are vets around but good luck getting any of them to come out. We make do by doing everything ourselves and using some specialized in something like preg checking.

During calving I run into not having the tools to get a calf out about 8 times per year. I eventually found a young vet that will always come because “I’ve got bills to pay” he has a great attitude. Without him I’d be shooting a few cows.

I’m considering getting my own tools and just doing it myself I’ve been in enough cows to know what to do. Need a saw, eye socket hook, snare and that claw grabber thing and we should be ok. Just have to make do with less sleep
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
In our area there are vets around but good luck getting any of them to come out. We make do by doing everything ourselves and using some specialized in something like preg checking.

During calving I run into not having the tools to get a calf out about 8 times per year. I eventually found a young vet that will always come because “I’ve got bills to pay” he has a great attitude. Without him I’d be shooting a few cows.

I’m considering getting my own tools and just doing it myself I’ve been in enough cows to know what to do. Need a saw, eye socket hook, snare and that claw grabber thing and we should be ok. Just have to make do with less sleep
If you’re needing a vet 8 times a year for calving assistance/ caesars then you’ve either got a crazy big herd (in which case hire one as staff?) or I’d say there’s something wrong with your herd management/ genetics.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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