The Farm Business magazine Cream Awards in only its second year is already established as the benchmark dairy industry awards, resulting in a fantastic entry and an impressive winning line up say the organisers.
Jimmy has been a member of the three vet practice, Galloway Veterinary Group in Kirkcudbright, south west Scotland for 30 years, where the philosophy is very much a matter of ‘putting your money where your mouth is’ and adopting a proactive, non-drug-based approach with clients.
To win the Dairy Vet of the Year award he beat off competition from large English veterinary practices.
Farm Business editor Chris Lyddon said the panel of experts who judged the award ‘picked out a vet with an approach they reckoned was just right to do the best for livestock farmer customers and for farmer customers’ livestock, while doing it in a way that recognised the need for those customers’ businesses to remain profitable’. He described Jimmy More as an example to the industry.
Galloway Vets currently supplies veterinary services to over 9,800 cows, which is 6% of all dairy cows in Scotland. As such, the practice has one of the highest ratios of dairy cattle to working vets and it is unique in this.
The majority of clients have herds with over 300 cows – twice the Scottish average – with some up to 700 cows. There are also two units both with more than 1,000 cows (according to the DEFRA 2013 census there were only 17 units exceeding 1000 cows in the whole of the UK).
“We have a large variety of management systems within our client base, from intensive, housed herds and others that are focused on achieving best returns from grass.
“All our dairy herds have and are still increasing in number. We estimate that within the next 12 months our cow numbers will exceed 10,500.
“I believe a business relationship where failure by the client leads to greater profits for the supplier cannot be an acceptable relationship, particularly when dairy farming is now such a specialist enterprise,” said Jimmy.
For over seven years the vet practice has encouraged and implemented fixed fee contracts for the supply of all veterinary services.
This fee includes preventive medicine but it also applies to the treatment of all disease and fertility work, unlike many other types of contracts where only preventive work is covered.
As a result, more than half of the clients have taken up the contract offer, which in terms of cow numbers covers 6,000 head of cattle. This innovative approach is, believes Jimmy, a great benefit to the client’s business and, importantly, to the welfare of all livestock.
These fixed fee contracts allow for cash flow projections to be accurately made by my clients, spreading the cost throughout the year.
Other innovative services include CalfStart and RearRight devised by Jimmy. These simple tools are aimed at achieving the goal of calving dairy heifers at 22 months of age at the correct size and weight. These tools rely on refining management techniques to achieve this aim.
Jimmy is also a fervent believer in contributing to the education of future vets and the practice actively encourages “seeing practice” by student vets who are interested in a career in production animal veterinary medicine.
Source: Stackyard