State/Territory
Colorado
Shortage Location - Must Serve
Prowers, Bent County
Shortage Location - May Serve
Otero, Kiowa, Baca
Location Center
Lamar, CO
VSGP Status
Open
VMLRP Status
(Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program)
Open
Priority of shortage
Critical
Fiscal year
Percent FTE
(Full Time Equivalent, based on a 40hr work week.)
30
Type of Shortage
(Veterinary Practice Area / Discipline / Specialty)
Type II Shortage: Private Practice – Rural Area Food Animal Medicine
Must serve
Beef Cattle
Other Must Serve
May serve
Dairy Cattle
Swine
Small Ruminant
Other May Serve
Camelids, equine
Employer
Position Title
Other disciplinary area
Carry Over
Nominator Name
Maggie Baldwin, DVM
Nominator Title
State Veterinarian
Nominator Org
Colorado Department of Agriculture
Nominator Email
Nominator Phone
303-869-9130
Importance/Objectives of Veterinarian
This extremely rural area in the southeast corner of the state covers 3,185 square miles (Bent and Prowers Counties only) and approximately 125,000 cattle along with numerous swine and small ruminant operations . There are currently 5 veterinarians who travel for farm calls however either due to nearing retirement age, or other practice needs, ranchers often have to haul their cattle to La Junta which is at least an hour and half drive. Veterinarians not only manage the health of livestock but aid state and federal agencies in tracking livestock movement as well as mitigate disease outbreaks which can decimate not only livestock but also local economies making the veterinarian a linchpin for the community. Our objective is to find veterinarians that will provide access to animal health services for livestock to help in the early detection of foreign animal and zoonotic diseases affecting livestock and small animals; the seamless integration of animal and human health awareness and response throughout the community; and effective local and regional disease surveillance and reporting to support state and national disease monitoring efforts. Meeting this objective will improve food safety, animal health and public health, and will help Colorado maintain resiliency to outbreaks of foreign animal and zoonotic diseases. The veterinarian who received the VMLRP award in 2020 did not stay in the region and has permanently left, leaving a gap in food animal coverage in this area.
Veterinarian Medical Activities & Services
This area requires a mixed animal practitioner. On the food animal side, the practitioner would need to be proficient in: -Routine herd management and overall health and nutrition assessments, -Reproduction management including pregnancy diagnosis, semen and trichomoniasis testing, -Routine vaccination, deworming, castration and dehorning, -Emergency services including trauma, obstetrical emergencies or dystocia, illness etc. -Completion of certificates of veterinary inspection and necessary diagnostics for travel and shipping, -Disease surveillance and diagnostics for state and federal program diseases and for foreign animal diseases are also necessary, -Educational outreach with Lamar Community College including teaching the vet assistant course -Educational outreach with youth programs including 4-H and FFA including offering veterinary services to the county fair when requested -Assist producers with foreign animal disease outreach including Secure Beef Supply planning -Natural disaster response for livestock - flooding, tornadoes, blizzards and wildfires have all taken place in this area in the last few years
Historical Efforts of Recruiting/Retaining a Veterinarian
The veterinarian who received the VMLRP award in 2020 did not stay in the region and has permanently left. This area hasn't had a lot of success in attracting new veterinarians interested in practicing large food animal. This is a very rural area of Colorado and considerable distance from any metropolitan areas of the State or from large population centers in Kansas. It has a high population of food animals but is extremely hard to recruit and retain veterinarians to any of the small towns within this very rural area. Financial incentives of the VMLRP would be helpful in the recruitment and retention of new veterinarians to this area. There are significant number of cow-calf producers in this location that need veterinary services to comply with State and federal animal health programs and to prevent and treat livestock diseases. Practices in the area have been able to offer very small hiring and retention bonuses but not at the level corporate clinics are able to offer.
Consequences of Not Securing/Retaining a Veterinarian
The risks associated with a lack of available veterinary services within a reasonable proximity of a producer's location in this area could include: -A greater prevalence of disease, which increases the morbidity and mortality of food animals, -Lack of emergency coverage can result in significant challenges and mortality for producers during certain times of the year (calving/lambing/kidding season), -Reproductive losses, such as recurrence of trichomoniasis due to lack of testing, would result in a monetary loss for the producer and the community, -The potential for the establishment and spread of a foreign animal disease due to the lack of timely surveillance and participation in Colorado emergency management activities, -The potential for the establishment and spread of a program or zoonotic disease due to the lack of timely surveillance and diagnostics, -A lack of the facilitation of interstate movement of animals through the issuance of a certificate of veterinary inspection or commuter agreements, -Adulteration of food products due to the producer's lack of knowledge on the proper use of pharmaceuticals and veterinary biologic products, -Increased production costs resulting from a lack of consultation on nutrition, proper herd management, -The inability to fulfill the requirements of the FDA Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) would likely result in the lack of administration of medically important antibiotics to the livestock in the area and routine disease control All of these factors could contribute to economic hardships for these rural communities which makes having food animals veterinarians in close proximity a critical need.
Community Aspects
At the intersection of 2 major highways, Lamar sits on a busy trucking route providing opportunities for growth and things to do while maintaining a small town environment. This highway system also provides for easy access to reach several major cities and airports within a few hours. Lamar is home to several community festivals throughout the year and, sitting on the Arkansas River, makes it a great place to pursue outdoor water recreation in the summer while still a drivable distance to the to the Colorado mountains and skiing over a long weekend. Lamar offers a reasonable cost of living compared to other places in Colorado. Prowers county is the #6 agricultural commodities producing county in the state leaving plenty of opportunity for a veterinarian to be in high demand with several large corporate beef, dairy, and swine producers in the region.