Summary
Non Technical Summary
There has been and continues to be a shortage of food animal veterinary services in Northern California. Veterinary services provided to owners of food animals often must take place on-farm, as either smaller producers may not have transportation for their animals, or larger producers need services provided to many animals at one time, necessitating visits to the farms and ranches. Our veterinary hospital serves producers in the federally identified CA241 shortage region, which includes Glenn, Tehama, and Colusa counties, in addition to six other counties in the area. One of our current practice vehicles is over twenty-four years old and needs to be replaced due to maintenance and reliability issues. We have been unable to purchase a replacement vehicle due to the rural economy in our area and the inability to raise prices to needed levels due to the value of livestock. This grant will fund the replacement of this vehicle and its veterinary box with a new vehicle, allowing for increased food animal veterinary services twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year in a substantial portion of northern California. Placing another food animal veterinarian in a vehicle will increase food animal services to our existing clients, allow us to serve additional new clients, and increase our capacity to improve on-farm animal welfare, improve treatment of sick animals, educate clients on topics such as antimicrobial use and stewardship, and improve our response to natural disasters or disease outbreaks affecting livestock in our area. This grant will allow our practice to serve a greater number of food animal owners, ensuring a safer food supply, a more resilient and sustainableagricultural industry in our shortage area, and improve the quality of livestock veterinary care in northern California.
Objectives & Deliverables
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this grant proposal is to replace our unreliable twenty-four-year-old veterinary truck with a new truck and a new veterinary truck insert. The current vehicle needs to be replaced due to age, excessive mileage, and increasing repair costs. The safety and reliability of the vehicle is concerning, especially at night during emergency calls.The mobile unit is expected to remain in service for ten to twenty years, far exceeding the project funding life. Long-term impacts include improved antimicrobial stewardship, better animal health outcomes, improved food animal productivity, more optimal animal welfare, and increased community resilience, because of increased capacity to serve a diverse range of food animal clients.Our objectivefor year one of the project period is to purchase a new pickup and veterinary insert and have an associate veterinarian servicing calls in the new truck.In year two, the income realized from their work will place our practice in a better financial situation than it was in year one, increasing the sustainability of the practice and allowing us more financial freedom to support local community activities, especially our 4-H and FFA programs. This will allow us to maintain our staffing levels and enhance contributions to the economic base of our small community.By year three, increased financial sustainability and associate capacity may allow us to hire an additional veterinarian to service current clients and continue to grow the practice to service new clients.
Challenges
Project Methods
EFFORT: Increase access to food animal veterinary care and servicesfor new and existing clients.EVALUATION:We will measure the impact of the grant using data from our current practice management and accounting software programs. These data will measure changes in number of existing food animal clients, demographics of food-animal clients, number of new food animal clients, changes in types of food-animal appointments (farm visit vs. haul-in), increases in protocol development and implementation, and increases in educational material development and delivery.MILESTONES:Year 1serve 10% more new clients on-farmincrease our services to existing clients by 15%increase service radius by 20 milesYears 2 and 3serve an additional 5% over previous yearincrease our services to existing clients by an additional 5% over previous yearall commercial dairy and beef producers will have functional treatment protocols in placeEFFORT: Increase knowledge of the following topics through education on-farm or in academic-type settings.antimicrobial use and stewardshipanimal handling and welfarequality assurance programsidentification and treatment of sick animalsbiosecurityEVALUATION: Measure the number and type of educational interactions yearly and compare the data to previous years.MILESTONES:One to three unique formal educational interactions with groups of producers or youth groups each year. Increase each year by 10% the number of on-farm trainings done for producers over the previous year.EFFORT: Increase the number of pre-veterinary and veterinary students exposed to livestock medicine.EVALUATION: Measure the number of each type of student who spends time with us yearly and compare the data to previous years.MILESTONES: Two additional pre-veterinary and three additional veterinary student internships/externships each year.EFFORT: Increased community resilience to foreign animal diseases, natural disasters, and pandemicslike Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza due to increased food animal veterinary availability.EVALUATION: Measure our availability to respond to disasters and outbreaks yearlycompared to historical availability.MILESTONES: Unavailable due to the unpredictable nature of appropriate events.EFFORT:Increased funding of local community programs, including 4-H and FFA, due to increased practice profitability.EVALUATION: Increases ofin-kind and cash contributions to support the local community will be quantified yearly and compared to previous years.MILESTONES: Additional $5,000 per year in cash or in-kind donations to local community groups.
Principle Investigator(s)
Planned Completion date: 31/08/2028
Effort: $125,000.00
Project Status
ACTIVE
Principal Investigator(s)
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Researcher Organisations
Recipient Organization MVVH ORLAND, INCORPORATED 4422 COUNTY ROAD N ORLAND,CA 95963
United Kingdom