Irena Vélez
Farmers Forum
It’s been two years since Rideau-St. Lawrence Veterinary Services partnered with Navan Veterinary Services to better meet the needs of farmers in Eastern Ontario.
Both businesses noticed a decreasing number of veterinary graduates pursuing large animal medicine and decided to combine workforces to fill in the service gap from Gananoque to the Quebec border.
“Having 14 to 15 veterinarians available on the road has really helped with timely visits for on-call emergencies,” said Dr. Jean Cyr, veterinarian with Navan Veterinary Service for over 20 years. “We want to help dairy farms, beef farms, horse farms, and hobby guys and we’ve had to adapt to make our business model sustainable to help farmers.”
The merger created a larger pool of veterinarians to service the area. The veterinarians now have a better work-life balance, with greater flexibility for on-call work, hopefully increasing the longevity of the veterinarians’ careers, explained Cyr.
“Our combined practice allows older veterinarians to mentor younger ones e ciently, so that newer veteri- narians are more capable of providing high quality medicine to our farmers,” said Dr. Christian Heyerho of Rideau-St. Lawrence Veterinary Services.
Heyerhoff says a concern for some farmers is who their veterinarian will be in the next few years, so the partnership is addressing this concern by making more veterinarians accessible than before.
“We’re building a line of experienced veterinarians and the farmers reap all that experience,” said Cyr. “We’re big enough that we can offer specializations and it gives more opportunities for farmers in need.”
