State/Territory
Texas
Shortage Location - Must Serve
Runnels, Concho, Coke, Nolan, and Taylor Counties
Shortage Location - May Serve
Callahan, Shackelford, Jones, and Menard Counties
Location Center
Winters, TX 79567
VSGP Status
Not Awarded
VMLRP Status
(Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program)
Awarded
Priority of shortage
High
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
(minimum 50% of time)
Beef Cattle
Small Ruminant
Carry Over
Yes, #1
Nominator Name
Lewis Dinges
Nominator Title
State Veterinarian
Nominator Org
Texas Animal Health Commission
Nominator Email
Nominator Phone
512-719-0715
Importance/Objectives of Veterinarian
This shortage area has more than 6,000 farms on 4.5 million acres of farmland. There are more than 10,000 producers with more than 200,000 head of cattle, 1,900 hogs and pigs, 37,000 sheep and lambs, and around 36,000 goats. Covering these counties are only six full-time food animal veterinarians. The current veterinary shortage in this area has made it difficult to maintain quick response times for emergencies and to maintain regular relationships and provide consultations to the thousands of producers in the area. Without being able to maintain these close relationships, it becomes difficult to ensure that each farm is performing best reproduction strategies, vaccinating at the proper times, testing regularly, rotating bulls, trich testing, and providing proper supplementation. While it’s not necessarily the veterinarian’s responsibility to ensure all of this is done on each farm, these working relationships have always been an integral part of animal agriculture in these rural communities, and the veterinary shortage is eliminating these regular interactions between clinics and producers. Beyond best practices, it is difficult for producers just to reach out and ask simple questions to practitioners like they always have in these counties because the few vets working are constantly responding to farm calls, performing surgeries, or working the sale barn. Additional veterinary support here would help producers rebuild these important veterinarian-producer relationships and allow them to feel confident that they are supported and have reliable care when they need it most.
Veterinarian Medical Activities & Services
A new veterinarian in this area would primarily need to perform herd care and herd consultations. There are many beef cattle and small ruminant herds in these counties, and it is imperative that qualified practitioners relay the importance of raising and maintaining healthy herds, with an emphasis on nutrition, husbandry, and biosecurity. This includes educating producers and the public on feed directives, safe interstate travel, disease mitigation, and reproductive best practices.
Beyond education, veterinarians here should be able to perform reproductive services, including breeding soundness exams, pregnancy testing, bovine trichomoniasis testing, and artificial insemination. Regular preventative care is also essential, including testing and vaccinating for brucellosis, testing for pseudorabies, drawing blood for equine infectious anemia testing, and performing CWD testing for cervid producers as needed.
An additional veterinarian would also need to perform emergency services for things like dystocia, necropsy, birthing emergencies and c-sections, and sick individual care. Emergency calls are critical for producers and is something that is slowly being lost due to the growing veterinary shortage.
Veterinarians should be able to work closely with both the community and local schools to relay the importance of veterinary services and how healthy livestock herds directly impacts our food supply.
Another important job of a veterinarian in this area is being properly trained on how to spot and diagnose foreign animal diseases and how to properly report them to state animal health officials so that their spread can be mitigated as quickly as possible.
Historical Efforts of Recruiting/Retaining a Veterinarian
Efforts to recruit new food animal veterinarians to this area have been made over the years by posting advertisements in magazines and on job boards and by working with Texas A&M University. Some new veterinarians have started work in this area but retaining them has proven extremely difficult. Many of them ultimately depart after a short time to go to larger cities and work for small animal corporate practices where they typically make comparable or higher salaries and without as much intensive manual work. Several clinics in these counties have raised their salaries, but the physical demands and long hours required still make recruitment and retainment difficult.
Consequences of Not Securing/Retaining a Veterinarian
The veterinary shortage in this area may ultimately create a critical risk to a safe and secure food supply. A lack of qualified livestock veterinarians leads to an increased possibility that diseases are left undiagnosed, and with missed diagnoses, disease traceability becomes more difficult and zoonotic transmission becomes more likely. Undiagnosed diseases can also lead to increased mortality, which can cause economic hardship for producers and families, a decreased food supply, and various environmental impacts. A continued veterinary shortage in these counties may also ultimately lead to producers selling off their herds or producers attempting to perform their own veterinary care out of necessity. Amateur veterinary care can cause serious health problems, especially when medications and/or vaccines are not used correctly. If this veterinary shortage persists, the risks of disease outbreak will continue to increase.
Community Aspects
These counties are comprised of many small towns and communities, and they reflect well the friendly, hard-working spirit of rural Texas. There are many great school districts that excel academically, and they are small enough that parents can connect with both each other and with teachers. Winters ISD offers a 4-day school week, small classroom sizes, and dedicated teachers who are integral parts of the community.
With no truly large cities in this area, the cost of living remains lower than in other parts of the state and country, and there are many options for renting or buying houses. There is also ample property available to build on and/or raise livestock.
The entire area is deeply rooted in agriculture and cowboy heritage, and the communities work hard to preserve the west Texas way of life. There are many opportunities for youth sports and 4-H, with many kids actively involved in FFA and stock shows.
Abilene in Taylor County and nearby San Angelo are large enough to offer shopping, entertainment, higher education, hospitals, healthcare providers, and live music. Each also has multiple lakes for fishing and recreation and state parks with beautiful hiking trails.
Page last updated: September 24, 2026