Nearly 60 percent of Kansas livestock producers say they perceive a shortage of veterinarians, highlighting a persistent challenge for rural communities that depend on large-animal practitioners for everything from routine herd work to emergency care.
Kansas State University released the findings Thursday as part of a five-year impact summary from the Rural Veterinary Workforce Task Force, a coalition working to strengthen the recruitment, development and retention of veterinarians serving the state’s agricultural communities.
From 2020 through 2025, the task force conducted what K-State called the most comprehensive assessment to date of Kansas’ rural veterinary workforce. Researchers mapped 446 large- and mixed-animal veterinarians across the state and used 30-mile practice-coverage radiuses to identify potential gaps in veterinary services.
The task force also surveyed more than 200 livestock producers statewide, with nearly 60 percent reporting that they perceive a veterinary shortage.
For the Kansas Livestock Association, access to veterinarians is an issue that directly affects producers and their animals.
“KLA members rely on veterinarians for both routine and emergency animal care and are increasingly concerned about access to those services in rural Kansas,” said Matt Teagarden, chief executive officer of the Kansas Livestock Association. “Through collaboration on the Rural Veterinary Workforce Task Force, we have made meaningful progress in expanding the number of large-animal veterinarians serving rural communities.”
The task force includes representatives from the Kansas Veterinary Medical Association, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, Livestock Marketing Association, Kansas Department of Agriculture, and K-State’s colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture.
“This group has been exceptionally productive because it brings together perspectives from each member organization to develop thoughtful, collaborative solutions,” said Brad White, professor in production medicine and director of K-State’s Beef Cattle Institute. “I especially value the willingness of everyone to look beyond individual interests and focus on practical strategies that strengthen the development and retention of rural veterinarians, ultimately benefiting agricultural communities.”
The task force’s work went beyond counting veterinarians. It conducted a statewide review of the different roles within veterinary clinics to better understand staffing structures and the pressures facing rural practices, with the findings expected to inform recommendations aimed at improving workforce readiness and long-term practice sustainability.
Incentives target rural veterinary shortages
One of Kansas’ longest-running efforts to put veterinarians in underserved areas is K-State’s Veterinary Training Program for Rural Kansas, or VTPRK.
Created in 2006 with support from the Kansas Legislature, the program provides financial incentives to veterinary graduates who agree to practice in rural Kansas communities.
More than 100 students have been admitted to the program, and K-State reports that 86 percent remained in a qualifying county even after completing their required service period.
The task force has since helped expand the program, including increasing loan repayment assistance to $25,000 per year, increasing the number of future veterinarians who can participate and establishing an advisory committee to oversee student selection and the program.
Kansas is also looking beyond new veterinary graduates.
The task force supported the creation of the Developing Veterinary Medicine in Rural Kansas program, or DVM-RK, a proposed initiative intended to help early-career large-animal veterinarians establish themselves in rural communities regardless of where they received their veterinary degree.
Once approved, DVM-RK would provide up to $75,000 per participant in financial assistance. Participants would commit to three years of veterinary practice in a qualifying rural county — defined as one with 40,000 or fewer residents — or in a food-animal-focused practice.
The program also would require community service, which could include involvement with 4-H or FFA or service on local advisory boards.
The goal isn’t simply getting veterinarians into rural Kansas but creating conditions that encourage them to stay and potentially become practice owners.
Looking at why rural veterinarians stay or leave
Kansas researchers are also trying to better understand what makes a rural veterinary career sustainable.
K-State and Iowa State University researchers have partnered with veterinary medical associations in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska on another survey examining factors associated with longevity in rural veterinary practice. The survey was also distributed to alumni of the two veterinary colleges and members of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and Academy of Veterinary Consultants.
Researchers plan to examine self-reported career satisfaction and burnout, along with factors associated with stronger financial outcomes.
The Rural Veterinary Workforce Task Force has also partnered with the Farm Journal Foundation to pursue changes to federal initiatives including the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program and Veterinary Services Grant Program.
The issue has become increasingly visible among Kansas livestock producers. KSN-TV reported this week that rural veterinarians described a profession that can mean long days working outdoors in extreme conditions.
Ashland veterinarian Dr. Randall Spare, who has worked in the field for 40 years, described a July day spent performing pregnancy ultrasounds on cattle.
“One of the jobs that we do is we ultrasound for pregnancy,” Spare told KSN. “And we started early in the morning at 7, finished up at 1:30, and it was 102 degrees.”
Spare said the realities of the work are part of the challenge of recruiting veterinarians to rural communities.
“Our environment that we work in isn’t air-conditioned, isn’t pleasant, isn’t climate-controlled, the wind is blowing, sometimes it’s raining, sometimes it’s snowing,” Spare said. “We understand when we signed up for this job, it’s a very inconvenient service, but we’re here to serve people.”
Both Spare and Stanton County veterinarian Tera Barnhardt told KSN that one potential solution is encouraging young people raised in rural communities to consider veterinary medicine, and then return home to practice.
For Spare, that means giving interested young people an opportunity to see the work firsthand.
“It’s our job as rural veterinarians to, when we see a young person that shows an interest in their parents’ livestock operation or even raised in the community of Ashland, say, ‘You know what, you could do what I do,’” Spare said. “I ask them, ‘If you want to do this procedure with me,’ and I’m inviting them to participate in what we’re doing, even though they don’t see themselves doing that.”
With livestock production central to Kansas agriculture, the task force says maintaining a stable rural veterinary workforce is important not only for animal health, but also for food production and the economic vitality of rural communities.