Thoughts From Dave

Dave Maples Executive Vice President

Our o ce has spent a great deal of time this month on the issues of veterinarians and the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act. If you are interested you can read House Bill 167 which is an ACT relating to veterinarian licensing. Just to give you a heads up, it is a 68 page bill that is very comprehensive. It includes nearly all aspects of veterinary medicine including small animals, food animals and telemedicine.

ere are two di erent bills relating to the veterinary profession working through the legislature this session along with a task force to come up with recommendations or ideas to address the shortage of rural veterinarians. e search for the State Veterinarian is going on at the same time.

And don’t forget that the reality of over-thecounter antibiotics will end come June 2023. Cattlemen will have to have a prescription to purchase the common antibiotics that we have all used for years that you purchased at the local farm supply store. A VCPR (Veterinary Client Patient Relationship) will be highly important going forward. is will require a veterinarian to visit your farm at least once every 12 months. You need to establish a VCPR anyway and work with your local veterinarian.

I don’t think most people realize the importance of the State Veterinarian position. Today we have no State Veterinarian or Assistant State Veterinarian. is is not a good position to be in with all the livestock and equine that Kentucky is home to. Over the years we have been very fortunate to have a long run with Dr. Bob Stout and Dr. Don Notter before him. Dr. Katie Flynn was just getting into the job but a better o er came along and she couldn’t turn it down. It looks like the compensation package is going to have to be better if we are going to attract the high-quality personnel that is required to manage the State Veterinarian o ce. A veterinarian can just about name their price in today’s market. For some reason I have managed to get on the telehealth email list where I get correspondence from several of the televet companies. One of the companies was o ering paid time o at a top-rated vacation property courtesy of their company if you came to work for them. e one thing I have had to come to grips with on this issue is that the veterinary industry is going to change and the way you as a cattleman interact with your veterinarian could be di erent than the way we grew up with our local veterinarian. e veterinary industry is consolidating just like about everything else.

As for the shortages of rural veterinarians it is going to be important that we as cattlemen identify young people in high school that have a strong desire to be a veterinarian and then come back to our rural communities to practice. I had a good conversation with the folks at Auburn about a mentorship program with these select students. e details of the program have not been worked out but it sure sounded like a good idea that KCA could support.

Bracken County News

Submitted by Meg Strausbaugh

Bracken County Cattlemen enjoyed a great meeting on February 23rd! A delicious roast beef meal from K's IGA was served by Bracken County FFA students and sponsored by Dr. Darrin Stan eld and presentation from Brent Tolle with Boehringer Ingleheim. Members so generously donated $393 for our scholarship funds. And a collection was also taken up in support of our local animal shelter, in which a check of $189 was presented to Robbin Snapp, Animal shelter director.

We had some generous donations for prizes! Two $50 Brooksville Farm Supply gi certi cates donated by Brooksville Farm supply, a case of oil donated by Kubota of the TriState, Augusta store, and a $25 Brooksville Farm Supply gi certi cate donated by David and MaryAnn Cummins. Winners: Crystal Dunn, Michael McClanahan, Debbie Hargett, Tina Teegarden.

We are currently 170 members strong! It's not too late to join! If you would like to be part of the board of directors in the upcoming membership year, see President Nicole Goecke.