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Collaboration could relieve large animal vet shortage

A new veterinary education strategy could supply more large animal practitioners to South Dakota. State legislators approved funds for South Dakota State University to collaborate with the University of Minnesota, filling 20 vet school slots.

“We’re hoping it’ll lead to more practitioners of large animals,” said Gary Cammack (R-Union Center), Chairman of the South Dakota Senate Agriculture Committee. “There’s a real shortage out there.”

Cammack, a West River cattle rancher, says the plan is important for South Dakota livestock producers and for prospective veterinary students.

“The big thing about is that it saves each one of those students somewhere between $104,000 and $128,000 each,” Cammack told Brownfield Ag News. “It’s huge.”

Governor Kristi Noem approved the plan, which provides for students to complete the first two years of post-graduate work at SDSU and the last two at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine in St. Paul. The plan, according to Cammack, also ends an agreement in which a half-dozen South Dakota veterinary students per year were earning DVM degrees at Iowa State University. That arrangement will end a year from this August.