The Saskatchewan Government Is Hoping To See More Rural Vets

Apr 16, 2021

The Province announced a number of initiatives this week aimed at encouraging veterinary students to work in rural areas.

Saskatchewan Polytechnic's two-year registered veterinary technologist program will begin allowing students this fall to the course remotely and complete the program at a partnering clinical practice with local veterinarians in rural areas. The Province is providing $687,000 to go towards the development and operating costs.

Graduating veterinarians and veterinary technologists who choose to work in rural and remote communities for up to five years, will also have up to $20,000 of their Saskatchewan Student Loans forgiven.

Agriculture Minister David Marit says veterinarians and veterinary technologists play an integral role in protecting the health and productivity of Saskatchewan's livestock herd.

"The measures announced today will ensure producers have access to their important services which will help achieve our Growth Plan goal of increasing livestock cash receipts to $3 billion by 2030."

Included in the Province's incentives, three of the 20 seats funded by the Government at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine will prioritize admission of students who are more likely to work in a large animal and/or rural mixed animal practice.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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