The state of Michigan has announced new initiatives to help recruit and retain rural veterinarians.
Michigan FFA Foundation Director Alex Schnabelrauch says collaboration with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Michigan State University is introducing students to veterinary careers as early as middle school.
“I hope a decade from now we can look back and say, gosh, there are some students who connected the dots to their future career at these events or because their teacher received this training,” she says.
Nearly $1.4 million is being invested in new resources to improve veterinary science education and early career resources.
According to Schnabelrauch, almost $500,000 is helping to enhance FFA’s Veterinary Science Skills Contest, establishing a veterinary careers track as part of the annual Michigan FFA Careers Conference, equipping classrooms with resource kits, and training agriscience educators.
“This curriculum and these resources are allowing some standardization in terms of exposing more students in more areas despite the resources of each school and the background of each educator, giving all of them the chance to try on some of these skills,” she explains.
MSU is implementing a Michigan Rural Veterinary Workforce Model as part of its $900,000 grant to connect veterinary students to practices, increase incentives, and strengthen professional support networks.
A recent MSU Extension survey found more than half of cattle producers had been unable to access veterinarian care when requested, mostly because of scheduling conflicts or understaffed clinics.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
We applaud this type of approach to help eliminate a growing problem across rural America. We outlined the serious nature of this shortage in a previous issue of this AIR. It is wonderful to see that at least one state has developed a dedicated plan/effort to address this problem head on. It is especially encouraging to see the effort recognize that they must start the education and recruitment effort at an early age. Your AIR Editor, when serving as the Director of Agriculture for Michigan, conducted an in-depth assessment of agricultural education in conjunction with the Superintendent of Education for the state. One of the findings was that in order to address the needs of agriculture and attract more of the best and brightest students, recruitment must start at a very early level. It appears this latest effort is headed in the right direction.
This topic might be a good way to begin a conversation with livestock producers in your area. Discuss this article with them and ask for their opinion and input. Then you might decide to provide some input and support to your state’s Land Grant University. That support is highly valued by farmers/ranchers who lean on them for solutions….
