Celebrating 70 years of OVC’s Ruminant Field Services

Providing veterinary services to the community and on-farm learning for student veterinarians

Did you know that the Ruminant Field Services (RFS) clinic at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) has been a valuable service to the community since 1953? Comprised of veterinarians, a veterinary technician and student veterinarians, the RFS clinic provides primary veterinary services for dairy and beef cattle, sheep and goat farms around the University of Guelph. 

The RFS clinic is a fully mobile, on-farm service that offers veterinary care to ruminants, which are grazing mammals capable of digesting plants by fermenting them in a specialized stomach. The clinic’s focus includes dairy and beef cattle, as well as sheep and goats across more than 25 commercial farms and 4 University of Guelph-managed research facilities.

The primary service offered by the RFS clinic is their herd health management program, which sees practicing veterinarians travel to farms on a bi-weekly basis with a team of student veterinarians to assess individual animal health and reproduction, discuss any challenges that have arisen in the herd, and provide care as needed to animals in the herd. 

“In the 1970’s, RFS was a pioneer in herd health programs with dairy farms. At the time, it was a breakthrough that farmers would have the veterinarian travel to the farm for proactive and preventive visits, rather to treat a sick cow.” said RFS professor Stephen LeBlanc. 

In addition to the herd health management program, the RFS clinic provides full veterinary services for client farms, including 24/7 on-call availability. Upon receiving a call, a veterinarian will travel to the farm in need - at any hour – for anything from helping a cow through a difficult calving or checking on a lamb that has stopped eating. Veterinarians and student veterinarians will provide care together, from pregnancy diagnosis and vaccination to on-farm surgeries.

“We have been clients of the RFS for over 50 years,” says Tim May, a local dairy farmer and operator of Mayhaven Farms. “The students and staff of the RFS are outstanding. They all show genuine concern and compassion for our animals while still treating our farm as a business. In a way, they are like extended family.”

This year not only marks the 70th anniversary of RFS and its service to the community, but also its contribution to the training of future veterinarians. At a time when demand for rural and food animal veterinarians is rising, the RFS clinic is training student veterinarians to serve the complex and evolving needs of Ontario’s agri-food sector and rural communities. 

Through on-farm teaching, the RFS clinic allows student veterinarians to integrate theoretical knowledge with real-world experience by working alongside OVC faculty, clinical veterinarians and Doctor of Veterinary Science (DVSc) students.

In the first three years of OVC’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program, student veterinarians are encouraged to participate in RFS farm visits. This provides exposure to agriculture and the food sector early in their studies, allowing for development of skills and knowledge around farming, clinical practices, and students’ understanding of the business of animal agriculture.

In their final clinical year, student veterinarians are placed in small groups with veterinarians at the RFS clinic. Through these placements, graduating veterinarians are offered the opportunity for experiential clinical learning – where physical skills such as examinations, palpations and treatments or interventions can be practiced under the supervision of expert veterinarians. 

“The RFS rotation was very beneficial in my training as the veterinarians made every opportunity for me to further my skills rather than re-emphasize skills that had already been established,” shares Rachel Budd, OVC Class of 2021 and now associate veterinarian at Oxford Bovine. “Spending one-on-one time with professors and asking them about relevant issues, best management practices, and opinions on cases is invaluable to future practitioners.”

The RFS clinic is an important part of Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance’s Veterinary Capacity Program. This program invests in veterinary training at OVC with the aim to meet rising demands for highly skilled veterinarians that treat livestock for emerging issues, monitor the health of animals in the food chain, serve on the front line of disease surveillance in the rural and agricultural sector, and support farming communities and rural Ontario.

“The RFS team is proud of continuing over two generations of veterinary service and teaching,” said LeBlanc.