Food and Farm Showcase: Large Animal Veterinarians

MOUNT UPTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Today’s Food and Farm Showcase introduces us to a profession that is essential to the dairy industry.

Doctor Laura Brown is a large animal veterinarian with Midstate Veterinarian Services based in Cortland. She routinely travels to dairy farms to conduct reproductive exams and herd health management.

We caught up with her this week at Hanehan Family Dairy on Route 8 in Mount Upton.

Brown visits the more than 2,500 herd of cows weekly, performing ultrasound to determine if the cows that have been recently inseminated are pregnant. She also reviews analysis of cow’s milk and inspects any that appear to be ill.

Brown says the cows typically give birth to one calf each year.

“These animals are our livelihood. We need to make sure they’re in the absolute best health possible in order for them to be profitable animals. So, these guys are all making 93 pounds of milk per day, which is a tremendous amount of milk. You can really only do that if you have a good, healthy herd,” said Brown.

Brown’s father was also a large animal veterinarian, and she got her doctorate at Cornell.

She says the profession has changed a lot in the past 20 years, with a lot more data collection and more progressive approaches to animal welfare. The job is physically demanding and involves a lot of driving, but she loves it.

Brown says there’s been an effort to get away from 80-hour weeks and establish a better work/life balance.

“We’ve trained our staff to be really efficient at doing a lot of the things that veterinarians used to do 20 years ago. We end up stuck behind computers, looking at data and trying to find trends and identify areas of opportunity for farms more than ever,” said Brown.

Brown says recruiting new large animal vets is a challenge, but people must be passionate about the job.

She also treats horses and the occasional sheep or goat.

Brown says sick cows are always separated from the rest of the herd and their milk is not included in the consumer supply.

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