Vetnews | Januarie 2025 46 « BACK TO CONTENTS This is the thought that our then world heavyweight boxing champion Gerrie Coetzee afterwards admitted went through his mind shortly before being knocked out by Greg Page in Sun City in 1984. So it is with South African livestock farmers. Particularly dairy farmers for whom reliable private veterinary services are an integral part of their now burgeoning enterprises. “Burgeoning?” you might ask. Well, if you – as a livestock vet as I am - had served the dairy farmers in your region for half a century and watched pasture-based herd sizes grow from an average of 65 cows-in-milk to 800; and the largest herds from 200 cows in the mid-1970s to over 2000 today, yes, I’d call that burgeoning. Also, if you grew up on a farm that had a fowl run where the hens had crushed mealies hurled over the wire-netting fence to eat, and saw a misdirected grasshopper land amongst them, you’d have watched mayhem as they all had a go at getting it. The same applies today when a piece of land, let alone another farm comes onto the market. Far fewer farmers, far vaster enterprises … and more muscular buying power from the remaining 900-odd dairy farming businesses in SA now. And herein lies my threat. An earnest warning about trouble coming. South Africa is seeing a dramatic export of our youth for the wellknown reasons of crime and lawlessness, BEE, and political and economic instability. But most alarmingly there is a drastic decline in the number of newly qualified veterinarians going into rural / livestock practice. (The same situation is making the livestock industry in the USA hit panic buttons.) In September the president of the SA Veterinary Association Dr Paul van der Merwe and I were interviewed by Radio Power FM, and the Mail & Guardian newspaper on this alarming reality. As in that boxing ring in Sun City, the fight has been quite even – ebbing and flowing - until the last decade. Now the tide is accelerating in its ebb, and already several vet practices in the platteland have simply closed their doors. The seemingly more stable practices in bigger centres will soon be feeling the pinch (punch) as the older vets search for replacements. When young vets graduate from Onderstepoort they are obliged to serve Volk en Vaderland through a year of Compulsory Veterinary Services. Much of the effort of these vets is directed to help in the communal areas where vet services are rare. They are remunerated extremely generously by the state, in the region of R60 – R70 000 per month. South African country practices are very unlikely to be able to match that. Not by a long way! The packages that they can be offered locally are moreover laughable in comparison to overseas. They can not only earn far fatter salaries abroad but throw in accommodation, vehicles, fixed working hours and time off and there’s no comparison. If locally qualified vets have varsity loans to repay … then it’s a total nobrainer. I NOW COME TO MY KNOCKOUT UPPERCUT IN SUBMITTING THIS ARTICLE. It is you farmers who are somewhat to blame! You are so ensconced in your balance sheets and what your economist consultants are convincing you about cutting your animal health costs (“vet, meds and dips”) that you are simultaneously cutting off your noses, or shooting yourselves in both feet. You are smugly avoiding getting your meds through your vet practices. “OH OH! HERE COMES TROUBLE!” Dr Tod Collins
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