Practically Ranching
Join Matt Perrier as he visits weekly with interesting, thoughtful, entertaining individuals within the beef community. Conversations will inspire curiosity and creativity while maintaining the independent spirit and practical nature for which ranchers are known.
Practically Ranching
#88 - Kailey Fitzmorris, Building a Team
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Dr. Kailey Fitzmorris is founding owner of Flyin 3 Vet Service, Eureka, KS. With additional locations in Moline and Cedar Vale, she has 4 additional veterinarians working with her in the practice.
Our Locations | Flyin’ 3 Veterinary Service in Kansas
Past podcast mentioned:
Dr. Miles Theurer https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995747/episodes/14655607
Hello there and thanks for joining me for episode 88 of Practically Ranching. I'm Matt Perrier, and we're here thanks to Dalebanks Angus, your home for practical profitable genetics since 1904. We're nearly sold out of our current group of 60 private treaty bulls, but we will be testing another small group in mid-April. After that, we'll have a few groups of some private treaty females, both fall and spring calvers throughout the spring and and summer. And then of course, mark your calendars for annual production sale on November the 21st, 2026. This week's guest is our local veterinarian, Dr. Kailey Fitzmorris. And as the episode title kind of indicates, Kailey is more than just a DVM, she is a team builder. She may not say it, but I think her actions show it, whether it is her staff or volunteer board members with whom she works, uh, experts in the animal health community, or even just those of us who she calls clients, it is fun to watch such a humble leader who surrounds herself with good people, keeps them excited and motivated, and relishes the opportunity to, to make life better for the animals and the people that are in her care. You know, we cover the obvious topics that one would with their veterinarian, uh, herd health protocols, the shortage of large animal vets in rural America, even hot topics like New World Screw Worm and Theileria or however you and your vet want to pronounce it. But the overarching theme of this conversation was probably bigger than just animal health and wellness. It kind of became investment a little bit on the business side and her growing business, but not necessarily just that, not just monetary investment, but investment in people, in community, in youth, in the future, uh, in other vets, in her clients. You know, on the day that we recorded this last week, uh, as she often does, Kailey had three vet students who happened to be shadowing her that day, and I think the next day she had a junior high school student doing the same. Later it'll be a 4- H club and a grade school class. And when it comes to building a team, Kaylee. Clearly isn't just in it for her own benefit today. She's in it for everybody else's benefit tomorrow. Just this week, I heard a basketball coach probably quote someone like Zig Ziglar and change it into his own, but he said "the best way to get what you want is to give others what they need." I think this really sums up Dr. Fitzmorris's leadership style pretty well. You know, a good veterinarian is a pivotal player on a Cattleman's team, but they can be a lot more than just the guy or gal who helps you save a sick animal when you need it. It was really fun for me to finally have a non-urgent conversation with my vet. I think you'll enjoy it as well as we talk about building a team with Dr. Kailey Fitzmorris
KaileyRemember, because of the tiger.
MattOh yes, the lepto titer. Yes.
KaileyNo an anaplas.
MattAnaplas, yes.
KaileyThey'll raise a tiger.
MattI, I totally forgot about the spell check on titer.
KaileyYeah.
MattIt gets me on different words. Bulls is always bowls when you
KaileyB-O-W-L-S.
MattYeah. Yeah. When I talk to Siri, she always puts bowls down. But we're not gonna fix the woes of AI and apple voice to text. No. Um, but we are gonna fix all of the animal health issues that have ever plagued any ranchers today.
KaileyThat'd be
Mattgreat.
KaileyWe'd make millions.
MattWell just get ready because you're the one with the letters after and before their names.
KaileySo I don't know about that.
MattSo tell me how and why Kailey Fitzmorris decided to be a veterinarian years ago.
KaileySo I knew I wanted to be in the medical field. Um, I wasn't sure when I was in high school. I thought I wanted to be like an ophthalmologist Really? And work on people. Yeah. And then I, uh, got hired. I needed a summer job. So I got hired at Brackens Hog Farm in Fredonia and got to, uh, start working on animals. And I thought, "wow, this is awesome." So they, uh, really invested in us. There's three girls that worked there all in high school, and all three of us are veterinarians. So I'm the third of the three
MattHoly smokes,
Kaileyum, just in a row. So they really pushed us and I realized I really liked working with both people in agriculture and just, uh, the variety that veterinary field offered. So that's what opened the door, and we kind of just went crazy following that one.
MattGood. Well, the hog connection makes sense now because I remember Dr. Droge who had the practice here in Eureka for decades. I remember him saying, yeah, I've got a, a new vet student coming down to. And I can't remember if it was immediately work with him or did you?
KaileyI went
Mattstraight shadow or intern with him ever
Kaileybefore. Uh, I, he, I never worked for him in the summers, but Okay. I, my husband, I don't know if we were married at the time, but he lives in Fredonia, so lived in Fredonia. So we, I would come home way more often than I should. Yeah. And stopped in here to see what he was doing almost every time. And he always had something for me to do.
MattGood.
KaileySo, um, after, you know, we started that relationship of, you know, him letting me do things and I thought, this is great.
MattGood.
KaileySo that's kind of what he was on the way home and then it just worked out great. It just kind of kept compounding from there.
MattAwesome. Well, I just, I remember him saying that he had a young female vet that was interested in, in. Working into the practice, maybe purchasing the practice. And he, I said, um, food animal, large animal. He said, yeah, she wants to be a hog vet. I said, in Eureka, Kansas. But now I understand why you wanted to
Kaileywork on hogs. I'm glad I did not pursue the hog only thing. Uh, I would, you wouldn't have, I would be starving around here. One. Yeah, you
Mattwouldn't, wouldn't have ended up in Eureka.
KaileyThat was case two. It's not quite the variety that, you know, mixed animal practice offers.
MattWell, when you say variety, you obviously have a lot. Offline. You were just telling me about having to lift up somebody's deer off of their porch. Wasn't
Kaileytaxidermy deer?
MattYes. Yeah. So are you getting into that business too, or
Kaileyyou get 'em back one way or another? That is always what, uh, I've seen people joke about that, but, um, uh, no, I'm out on that. I don't think I'm artistic enough for that endeavor.
MattOh gosh. Yeah,
Kaileythat's, but I have had people like bring in their cats and want 'em to taxidermy and that I have convinced them every time not to, not to do that, so, wow. But their mixed animal practice offers all kinds. So
MattI would say, I would say, I, I, I think most of us are wanting you to work on them to maintain their life.
KaileyYes, yes, yes. But every day has, every animal has the last days is what someone told me the other day, and I'm like, you're right. I mean, we all do.
MattSo that is true. That is true. We just, if we're coming to you, we're probably trying to prolong that and kick that as far down road as we can. I
Kaileywould agree.
MattSo that does bring up a good point because for so long, um, even when I was a kid, I, I kind of looked at our veterinarian as the person that we had to go see when something went wrong. And in my trek through the beef industry, I have learned that it's a whole lot better to have conversations with my vet. You. About how we keep from having to call you for an emergent or an urgent situation. Um, there's still gonna happen.
KaileyYes.
MattAnd me, just like everybody else is going to text or call you outside of office hours and say, what in the world do I do? But it, that conversation's a whole lot easier if it's not the only time you've heard from me in the last six
Kaileymonths. A hundred percent agree. I enjoy getting to talk to the producer outside of an emergency. Mm-hmm. Because then we talk about things more than just that one case. I mean, we're talking about management and what can we do to prevent things in the future. I mean, this year Theileria was a big thing and, uh, I convinced I have one stocker guy that we work with pretty closely, and we evaluate the data at the end of every year. Uh, you know, what antibiotics worked this year? What were they seeing? What, uh, sale barns did they get the cattle from? You know, who is the buyer? Uh. I mean, we break it down 30 different ways to see if we can find any trends. And I enjoy that process. One, just to be more involved in the data and see if we can help in the future years. I mean, what's past is past, but we can learn and move forward. But this year with the Theileria, we convinced them not to buy anything from, uh, you know, Missouri, Arkansas area. And I am so thankful we did because their treatment rates were n next to nothing. Um, where I had other producers lose almost 50% of the calves they bought. So. I enjoy those conversations and I think it, you know, it's beneficial to them and me, um, just to know what's going on in the operation and then be able to help 'em from there too.
MattYeah. I mean, it's the classic case of addressing the problem, not just the symptoms.
KaileyYes.
MattYes. And so often we wait till we have a symptom or a critical time Right. To talk to you and, and yeah, it's a lot, you can do a lot more for us if we're looking long term and taking the emotions of that urgent
KaileyYes.
MattTime out.
KaileyAnd by the time, you know, we have a problem. And a lot of times it's too late to
MattRight.
KaileyWhen we're trying at that time, just put the fire out instead of getting ahead of it. So,
Mattyeah. So you, you brought up a disease that I think a lot of us... if we're aware of it, we've only recently become aware of it. Theileria?
KaileyYes.
MattWhich th th yeah. I
Kaileymaybe say the Kansas version. I'm not really sure, but I
Mattthink you're probably saying it right. But T-H-I-L-E-R-I-A, whatever that word is. I think I spelled that right. Did I,
KaileyI don't know. You're giving me T-H-E-I-L-E-R-I-A.
MattOkay. Maybe that's, maybe I, I
Kaileythink Don't spell check this.
MattYeah. Maybe I switched a vowel. But anyway, A, you're, you're getting ready to have a meeting on this, and I'm gonna learn a lot more here in a couple weeks. But, um, tell us a little bit about Theileria and
KaileyI'll do my best.
MattYeah.
KaileyUm,
Mattwhat, what, you know, at this point, at this
Kaileypoint, it's, uh, caused by the Asian Longhorn tick that came, uh, it was first, I think in 2014, found in Virginia. Um, and the symptoms that it causes are a lot like pls, um, or even like a respiratory like symptom where it. Uh, attacks the red blood cell and then they become anemic and then usually die from it in young cattle. But like in Virginia, they're not having any problems with it right now. It comes, becomes endemic to the area and then the cattle do fine. Um, but it's when you ship 'em or stress 'em, they break with it. And that's when we've seen it here is because they're shipping 'em from the southeast, the stocker calves 'cause we're in stocker country. Um, and then they break with it and there's no treatment in the United States right now. So, um, I think there's probably, that will be an up and coming topic, I'm sure in the next several years, um, especially as it spreads more to the west, but.
MattAnd right now the vector is mainly that Asian longhorn tick.
KaileyCorrect. But it is a three host tick. So I mean, and uh, the female does, it can reproduce asexually so it doesn't need a male. So you can't, like redu release a sterile fly like New World screwworm, you can release a sterile flies and attack it that way because it doesn't need a male. Yeah. And so it can just produce on its own. And then, you know, wildlife is huge so we can't control the wildlife also. So it can be on deer and mice. It's not like we can just control it with cattle. So it's gonna be a booger, I think for them to figure out how to control. I think it's gonna be one we kind of deal with like Anaplas.
MattAnd so like pl, I assume that naive populations when a tick comes into those is carrying
KaileyYes.
MattTheileria. Um, they're probably. Gonna get hit harder than Yes. An area, like you said in Virginia that looks like they've almost built some tolerance or resistance to
it.
KaileyIs that, yeah, I mean they, is that fair? Yeah. They, once they're, I think once they're, they've been exposed to it, they get over it, they're good to go. So, and I, I guess needle transmission is also pretty significant, which makes sense. Also in the stocker guys. 'cause a lot of times you just work, you know, your 50 head, so you kind of like Anaplas transmit it through the needle too. So if they were naive to it and then get infected with it, they're just having all sorts of problems.
MattIncubation time on that through a needle.
KaileyI thought it was like two weeks, but don't quote me on that one.
MattYeah, but a fairly typical
KaileyYeah,
Mattyeah. Pretty two to three week type of
KaileyYep. It's pretty
Mattincubation. Pretty. And so that would be one more thing. Like so many other bloodborne diseases. Um, you
mentioned anaplas, bovine leukosis virus, that there
Mattis value and we've been changing needles here for eight or 10 years. Yes. The first year we started doing it, I was like, oh my gosh, this is, this is awful. And now I can't imagine not Yes. Switching needles between every calf, between every cow. And, and uh, it's one of those things that the first year you do it, you think you're never gonna be able to get used to it and pay for it and get rid of the old needles, et cetera, et cetera. But
Kaileyyou guys are quick at it now. I mean, you don't even know that you're switching needles.
MattYeah. You get used to it. And, and, um, with so many of these bloodborne diseases out there, it's just one more of those risk management Yep. Things that become a cost of doing business. Not easy, but, uh, a whole lot easier worth in the long run. Yes. A whole lot easier than losing a five, $6,000, $10,000 cow.
KaileyExactly.
MattOr bull, or whatever the case may be. So it's gonna be something that's probably in this area. And, and where is, I mean we have listeners from all over the world, but mainly in the United States. Where are the areas you talked about Virginia was the first area that Theileria was found.
KaileySoutheast is mostly where it is right now. I think they said there's like 15 or 16 states with it.
MattAnd Kansas would be at the northwest region of,
Kaileyyeah. I don't know if there was anywhere past us. I feel like we were on the edge of it right now.
MattOkay. But similar to anaplas in that it seems to move northwest with every few years. Yeah. That there's new cases in areas that people said, well, we've never heard of anaplas. Yes. And now we're probably gonna see the same with Tyler area. One more thing to keep us on our toes. One more reason. It's never
Kaileychanging.
MattTo stay in contact with our veterinarian, I guess. That's
Kaileyfair. Yeah.
Mattthe other new one, and the other one that you're gonna talk about at this meeting or your folks are gonna talk about is New World Screw Worm. Mm-hmm. What is the most recent status report on that? I know, you know, obviously Texas and the states bordering Mexico are the most concerned about that and have the border shut down still to imported Mexican cattle. What are you seeing and hearing on the sterile fly production? I heard the, the
KaileyTexas, Texas facility recently opened or is getting near opening, so I think at least they have a way to, you know. Beat it once in the fifties. When was that? When it was so,
Mattyeah, I believe so.
KaileyIt blows my mind that they knew the technology then to stop something like that. But
Mattwe let off the gas.
KaileyYeah.
MattMexico let off the gas somebody wasn't releasing.
KaileyRight. These, so I heard the Texas one was open, I think now though, so I'm hoping that they can keep it south across the border. But
Mattyeah, hopefully.
KaileyDid your dad ever deal with any of that?
MattOh yeah. Yeah. He talks about having to catch baby calves when he was a kid, and, um, doctor navels and, and everything else. Just to
Kaileyprevent them.
MattUh, both they would do it to prevent them, but then also they would have some that would affect the, and the, he said, you know, you didn't dare cut calves from the spring through the summer and into the early fall because any kind of open wound was gonna get attracted. That makes sense. Screw worm. And, um, so yeah,
Kaileywell, I heard people like used to tar 'em and everything and I've been on operations where they tarred 'em and I just, I didn't quite get why until now. I'm like, oh, it makes sense now I get why they were doing it.
MattYeah. The guys that, uh, that roped all these calves said that, um, it would make for darn good rope horses because you got really handy because all summer long treating you were a doctor and screw worm. Yeah. And, uh,
Kaileymakes sense.
MattSo yeah, maybe, maybe we'll finally start making good horses again, thanks to the, you've always gotta find the silver lining, right?
KaileyI like it. Yeah.
MattI'm not sure I do. I, and I don't mind roping calves, but, yeah, I'm not sure I wanted, I
Kaileydon't want to be
Mattforced to do that.
KaileyDon't, no. I mean, you guys are already catching all your new calves, but
MattYeah. Yeah. And so a lot of
Kaileypeople aren't.
MattRight. Before we totally leave these two diseases that we talked about. Give a plug, I guess, for just the veterinary community and how best if somebody's sitting here going, I only call the vet when I've got calving difficulty, right? Or when I've got a cow that's down, or whatever the case may be. How, how's the best way to A, find a veterinarian that you feel comfortable working with, and B, sit down from, from a DVM standpoint and, and, and plan for the inevitable that, you know, what can we do to prevent as much as we can prevent,
Kaileyright?
MattAnd what do we need to do when you do need to call me with an urgent scenario? How, how do you start that conversation?
KaileySo I think the best thing to do is your local veterinarian. I mean, in your closest town. There's a lot of people that, you know, go out and, uh, are, you know, don't have a practice. They may just be in a truck, which makes it maybe a little more difficult. But the ones that have, you know, a building. You know, they're always gonna be around there. And if they're local to you, it's easier for them to get to you. Where if you're using someone you know, two hours away, it's gonna take it takes time for them to get there. One, sometimes they can't get to you and it's just easier and you're local veterinarians gonna appreciate it more than, more than anybody. Just to make that relationship. Slow Times for us are February and July, so I'm gonna put a plug in there August, if you have time. In those months I would go contact your veterinarian during those times. 'cause they would be more willing to sit down, you know, when March is calving pregging season and then it's just go, go, go, go, go. Probably not the best time to have those conversations, but um, if you call and schedule it with them, they can sit down with you. They have no, I would say most of 'em don't have any problems sitting down with you and discussing any concerns you might have or just get to know your operation.
MattSo I could hear several people, maybe hundreds of people yelling at their pickup radio. The closest local vet I have is two hours away.
KaileyWell, that's fair. The more rural you are, the more complicated it is for sure.
MattSo how is that? I mean, we hear and read in the press about there's such a shortage of food animal, large animal practitioners today and, and it's legit now. I used to be trumpeting that the loudest until you showed up and uh, well, thank you. We
Kaileyappreciate it
Matttoday. We're very blessed here in Greenwood County and now Elk County, you've got three different practices, right? Well we have three
Kaileypractices. Yeah.
MattAnd, um, and seemed to still be expanding, but for years we saw the same thing. It was very difficult to get in and get, um,, help when we needed it. Why is that what I think I know, or I have my, my opinions as to why we are so short on large animal food, animal practitioners across the nation. what is it from your standpoint and why is it that you decided that you wanted to fill that void?
KaileyI feel like this is a big can of worms. I have, we have three vet students behind me
Mattthat
Kaileyare kind, true
Mattstaring at, at me. I should have, uh, what, what would you tell them that they should be doing to help, uh, help us poor ranchers out here who need that? Um, and what do the ranchers need to do to make sure that we do have vets coming in to
Kaileythe, there's not a quick and easy answer to this. I, I mean, I know the state legislation is trying to push rural veterinarians back into Kansas. But it starts, I feel like we need to put effort into the young people, make sure that they have an interest in animal agriculture. Push 'em to go to college if that's something they wanna pursue. Let uh kids come to the vet clinic and see what they are getting into. just try to spark the interest young and then try to get people back to your home community. Um, it's hard to get people into your rural area if you're not from there. You know how rural areas can be kind of cliquey. Yep. Um, so your best chance is to invest in someone local. And I've heard of all sorts of ways to get people back to the new community. I had a kid in my school that their community was paying for their schooling, um, to get 'em back to the area. So, I mean, I think there's creative ways to get a veterinarian to your area. Um, the state has gotten involved in Kansas anyway, and uh, if you go back to a rural, community, they pay. 25,000. One of our, for four years, you have to work there for four years. Mm-hmm. For four years after vet school, they'll pay $25,000 a year towards your school. Um, vet school's getting crazy expensive. I think the average is probably $250,000 coming outta school in debt. Wow. Um, so it's difficult for a veterinarian to come to a rural area when the average mixed animal salary's probably 70,000, right now, and, the corporate veterinarians are getting paid 150, $200,000 outta school. So you're taking a huge pay cut right off the bat, just wanting to move to a rural area. So if you had someone invest in you and help pay for your schooling, it would make it easier. Um, USDA also has programs that once you graduate you can apply for if you're in a area of need, um, to get. Vets back to a small town. So that's also helpful. And I actually got that grant, once I graduated, so that helped. and I was also fortunate enough to get a scholarship in school, called the Byers' Ranch Scholarship, and they paid for all my books and tuition. But you still had your living expenses and undergrad to pay for, so
MattSure.
KaileyUSDA helped with that program.
MattHow much does the vet do the vet schools themselves have to do with, the lack of, or the lopsided nature of companion animal? I mean, compared to mixed animal,
KaileyI think a lot. I mean, we're opening up like, can worms with that one too? Can, can
Mattthey still take your license away?
KaileyI, I don't, don't know. I hope not, but
MattI think you're safe. You're safe.
KaileyDefinitely the applicants they're putting in, I mean, I, I feel like it's improving. But, uh, there's. I would say only 15% of the people in my class wanted to be mixed or large animal veterinarians. Is that probably pretty accurate for you girls or about half? About half. Half. So it's improved a lot just from where I was. Okay. Um, I would say, I don't know how they, how they change those requirements to let other, you know, 'cause they put so much emphasis on grades and, which is good, but, you know, you're probably getting some students that would be great. Veterinarians just not be able to get into school.
MattRight. Yeah. I re I remember hearing from, and, and this was a, um, animal science undergrad who applied to vet school and didn't get in.
KaileyMm-hmm.
MattAnd this individual wanted to be a large animal practitioner, would've been a great one. And they talked about in their interview, and maybe they were just testing 'em, but. They said that they wanted to just be a food animal practitioner and, you know, ended up doing some small animal, companion animal, right. But, but mainly a food animal. Cattle and horse practitioner. And the person interviewing them said, why, why would you want to do that? This was in the late nineties, maybe early two thousands. And uh, they took that as the vet school basically telling them that's the dumbest idea Yeah. That we could think of. And, you know, if that was accurate and if there was even that, perception on account of, of vet students, well then most of 'em probably would. Why would Yeah. Yeah. Sh shrugged their shoulders and look at the dollars and cents. And, and that's the other thing, we can sit around as ranchers and talk about woe is me all we want, how expensive it is to take an animal to the veterinarian or whatever the case may be. But it has to be economics. Yes. And we have to do our part too, in supporting these food animal, large animal type of, of practices, and, and being honest with ourselves that this cow is no longer worth a thousand bucks.
KaileyExactly.
MattShe's worth four.
KaileyRight.
MattOr more. And this calf is no longer worth 500 bucks. He's worth 2,500. Yeah. Or three. And, and depending on how old he is. And so it, we nobody likes to spend any money on anything. No, they don't have to. But the flip side of that is if, if those suburban couples are willing to pay the exorbitant fees that they are for a vet to work on FruFru the dog. Yes. Or cat or whatever the case may be. Economics does end up playing it. It rules the day.
KaileyYeah.
MattAnd whether somebody wants the goodness of their heart to practice in rural America on large animals or not, they do have to pay the bills.
KaileyYes.
MattAnd so we have to recognize that all the government subsidies and grants and everything else in the world may not be able to cover that gap if they can go and make a couple hundred thousand in Johnson County, Kansas. Right. Versus 70,000 in Greenwood County, Kansas. Uh,
Kaileyit's a sizable gap that you would have to make up a
Mattdifference. Exactly. And so, yeah, I think it's just like so many problems, just like the same problems that you and I deal with on animal health. It's multifaceted. Yes. There are a lot of different angles that, that we have to approach this with. Not any one of them will do it on their own.
KaileyRight.
MattUm, but you know, I, I think the piece that you talked about of getting vet students or even high school college age kids that are possibly interested in large animal practice, getting them out here and seeing that firsthand and, and, um, educating them about what it is we do in agriculture. 'cause sometimes they may not have grown up on a farm ranch. Right. I assume there are probably not very many large animal practitioners who didn't at least grow up in rural America, or is
Kaileythat rural America? I think, yeah.
MattLike for you, you grew up in Coyville, Kansas,
Kaileythe booming metropolis, yes.
MattPopulation
Kailey50 maybe,
Mattbut not necessarily on a farm,
Kaileyranch. No. Yeah.
MattMom was a
Kaileyprincipal
Mattteacher and principal
Kaileyand, and dad was in oil.
MattSo you would be one of the few that didn't grow up with cows or hogs, or horses or whatever the case may be. Found a passion quickly.
KaileyYeah.
MattThanks to the Brackens and yeah, maybe some others. Uh, but that's probably the exception, not the norm.
KaileyI would agree. Yeah.
MattSo it's, yeah. I
Kaileyinvest in the young people.
MattYeah. Try to, I, I think that in so many different ways, but specific to this conversation, invest in the young people and at, at some point it'll be returned. Yes. It may not be immediate, but it'll be returned
Kaileyand get creative. I mean, if you, if a community really wants a veterinarian, I mean, there's enough ranchers and some of these communities that
Mattcome together and Yeah. Put the carrot out there and, and basically buy one.
KaileyPretty much, yeah. I mean, pretty much that's,
Mattwe invest in so many other things, land or whatever resources it is that we need to do our daily business. That's, that's an investment that may have to be made and, and a creative way to, to do that. So creativity, um, you moved back here to Eureka or to the area and bought the practice how many years ago?
KaileySo I worked for Dr. Drogie. I came right outta school in 2014 is when I came and worked for him. And then I bought the clinic in 2017.
MattAnd that was a one clinic practice, and you had Flyin' 3 as you, that was your original,
Kaileythat was the original name, yeah. Right off the bat.
MattAnd now you have three?
KaileyYeah. So I, I guess we're done practice. I don't know. You,
Mattyou can, if you had one
Kaileyinitially we called flying three. We veterinarians. Yeah, that, I mean, that's right. Mean it was just me initially right after I bought from Dr. Droge and then I hired two more and I'm like, oh, now it makes sense. And then we've had some rework structure of veterinarians. So now we have three vet, three vet clinics and several veterinarians. I think there's five maybe.
Mattwhy the quick, relatively speaking quick, growth and how did that work? And tell us about that, going from a practice that you weren't sure that would support maybe.
KaileyYeah. It
was
Mattone to three of you and now all of a sudden you have three that's supporting five DVMs.
KaileyThere's just been a, our, our community has been great. Um, they've been very supportive. Um, Dr. Droge's a big guy. Uh, he's six eight maybe.
MattMm-hmm.
KaileyJust a big man. So, uh, he was getting a little bit older and just didn't want to do, large animal as much. Just it's hard on his body to get into a chute, get through the chute. Um, he didn't do any sale barn work. But that's kind of what I wanted to do with large animal. And unfortunately, other veterinarians in the area also passed away or quit, and so suddenly I was the only vet within probably three counties that would do large animals. So the demand grew quickly, way quicker than I ever would've anticipated. And, um, other veterinarians wanted to quit practice, just retire. And so instead of letting them not have a veterinarian, I thought, well, heck, surely we can find a vet to work there. And I've been very lucky to be able to recruit veterinarians and, uh, keep 'em fairly busy. So I, the growth has been just pretty much straight uphill. Um. Um, managing three has been a little more hectic than what I anticipated. I really enjoy being a veterinarian. Business owner is not my favorite thing, but it's kind of, they don't teach you much of that in school. So the learning curve on that's been pretty steep, but slowly we're figuring it out, I think.
MattWell, you used the word luck a lot and um, I had a high school football coach who used to say, luck is that exact time when preparation meets opportunity.
KaileyWe've had lots of opportunity.
MattYou've had lots of opportunity, but you had prepared whether you prepared for the business part or not. Definitely
Kaileynot,
Mattbut you figured out a way. And I think that that's one of those things, not just in in practicing vet medicine or even ranching or anything else, but. There are those opportunities. Not everybody sees 'em. No, or not everybody has the tolerance for risk to take that opportunity and run with it. And, um, quite often those are the businesses, regardless of segment of our industry or outside of agriculture. Those are the businesses that, um, that are able to, to grow and to thrive. And, and I think that that is a lesson here we jump from talking about how nobody wants to live the life of a poor, rural veterinarian to now you are the queen of Southeast Kansas veterinary medicine. Yeah. Um, there, there's, there's a gap there too. But I think that we have to recognize that they're, you know. There's a lot of opportunities there. Uh, if somebody is willing to enter large animal practice Yeah. And hustle and make smart decisions because yeah, there are a lot of vets just like Dr. Droge that are reaching an age that they don't, they don't need or want to be doing this. Correct. Much longer. Yep. And so there's the, the opportunity's ripe as I turn over my shoulder and look at these young vet students. We're
Kaileytrying, we're recruiting them too, so that's
Mattgood. That's good. So all three of these said vet students are that are over my shoulder. Like you are female?
KaileyYes.
MattUm, I don't know when I was a kid that I knew of any. Large animal practitioners who were female, and yet now this appears to be, at least in this particular room Yeah. Is definitely, definitely the majority. How has that been to come into an area that, I mean, I'll call a spade. A spade is a man's world. Yeah. Right here in, at least in southeast Kansas, and especially in working with cattle and horses and be a lady. How, how did, how did you broach that? Uh, has it been a hindrance? Has it been an opportunity? What's around
Kaileyhere? I had zero issue, I think if, producers, she used me initially, uh, because there wasn't probably another option. And then they thought, oh, she's willing, like, if, if you're willing, I don't think the sex of you mattered at all. I mean, I don't mind doing about anything. So, everybody around this area had zero issue with it, at least that I knew of. And I mean, we, I didn't have an issue whatsoever, I don't think. Yeah.
MattWell, it's good. It's clear that even those, either those of us or those of them, however we wanna look at this, that may have said, oh, lady Vet and Eureka Kansas, uh, I don't know if this is gonna work.
KaileyRight.
MattAll it took was one or two trips to see you at work to go, okay. Yeah. Yeah. She's our vet. Yeah. And I think that, that, even though, and, and by nature, human nature, unfortunately our prejudice in a lot of different ways Yeah. Of anything different.
KaileyYes.
MattDoesn't matter. I'm not talking race, I don't changing gender, I something just change. Yes. Yeah. It's something different. Something changed. Somebody moved our cheese, and then as soon as that a new thing, whether it's breed of cattle, type of equipment, pickup, truck, veterinarian gender, whatever the case may be, as soon as that different object proves that it works as well or better, we're game on. Right. I mean, and so I think that that's something that, um, quite often we kind of try to throw folks into a bucket. They are this or they are that, they're rural, they're urban. They're from a ranch, they're from a farm, they're a hog vet, not a cattle vet. Whatever the case may be. And then all of a sudden, as, as long as we are willing to give it a try, give them a try, give them an opportunity. Yeah. I mean, it's Katie Bar the door. Yeah. Let's roll on. And, and I think that that has, um, so now you have two of your three, well, let's see, you've got five total. Is it
Kaileyfi three
Mattor five? The fifth
Kaileyone is starting in, uh, June.
MattOkay.
KaileyRight now we don't have a vet in Moline, so we have like substitutes. You're covering that in there. So I'm there one day a week. There's a vet from Wichita one day a week. The previous owner of the practice is there one day a week. And then my sister-in-law's also a veterinarian. She's there one day a week. So that's a mass chaos down there. But
Mattit's
Kaileyyou getting it done almost. There's gonna be five of us. Yes.
MattYeah. And three of those five will be female.
KaileyYes. Yep.
MattYep. So you've still got a majority.
KaileyStill have majority. Yeah.
MattBarely.
KaileyYeah, barely.
MattBut, again,, if the work is getting done and getting done well, I don't think that any ranch, ranch don't, people care is gonna be choo. I don't care. No. Yeah. So that's that's great. And, and in some ways I would say that, whether it be coming from outside of ranching or. Whatever it is that makes you a little bit different, makes you a little less biased, that's probably a really good thing as a vet. Yeah. To be able to look at things from a little more Yeah. Unbiased approach and, and,
Kaileyand sometimes not knowing. I mean, that's the way things have always been done and just,
Mattyeah.
KaileyYou know, well, didn't, am I supposed to know that play? Yeah.
MattHow long are you gonna get to still play that card though, Kaylee?
KaileyI think another five years at least.
MattIt's an advantage when you come into a new community and even though you're just. 20 miles, 30 miles away from where you grew up. It's still We didn't know you.
KaileyNo.
MattAnd you didn't know us.
KaileyAnd I, I really enjoy having kind of like my personal life separate from my work life almost. I mean,
Mattprobably not a bad thing.
KaileyIt works out really well.
MattYeah. Yeah. I hadn't really thought about that, that maybe living outside of the community, even though it's just 15 or 20 miles outside is probably not a, not a bad thing. Sometimes we get so invested in. Every community group. Yes. And every school function and everything else, that it's almost too close for comfort. It's
Kaileytoo close.
Yeah.
MattYeah,
Kaileyyeah.
MattSo one more, uh, one more
Kaileytip,
Matttip trick for you guys, for you, aspiring vets. Don't live next to the people that you're practicing
Kaileyfor. Just a little space. I don't know if it really works now, 'cause now I'm kind of in the middle of all of 'em, but
Mattyeah, you are right in the middle of all
three.
KaileyBut it, it works well for me. I guess I can go to any practice within a pretty short period of time.
MattYeah. That's good. That's good. So what other, what other tips would you give either to college age kids? 'cause we've got a lot of 'em that are listening to this, who are considering work in the animal health or vet medicine field, or even to farmers or ranchers who say how in the world, how in the world do I get somebody like Dr. Kaylee Fitzmorris in my backyard practicing what. We already came up with some ideas on how to get recruit the new ones. Yeah. But what would be some advice you'd have for either of those groups?
KaileyI'd say for ranchers, just be sure to give the new grad a chance. the first, you know, year outta school, you're learning a lot, but you know, you're teaching, they're learning from you and, hopefully they you're investing in them, but hopefully that will pay off for you.
MattYeah.
KaileyAlso, so
Mattwe
Kaileysaw that grace, grace is important the first year or so, or two or three
Mattare, are you giving us ranchers the grace?
KaileyNo. You guys are giving us, or supposed
Mattgiving it to you? Oh
Kaileyyeah.
MattI think we both,
Kaileybut also on the veterinarian side. Yeah. You know, it takes a little bit to get to know your, uh, the area you're moving into, but once you get to know the people there, I mean, it's awesome. Yeah. It's fun to joke with them. You see 'em at the grocery store, you can give them crap. I mean,
Mattyeah.
KaileyStop on the road. Talk to 'em. It's, I love this community and I think it's important to invest in your community too. I mean, I think I was on every board known to man, I feel like they said "fresh blood" when I moved here and happens, recruited the crap outta ya
Mattalways happens.
KaileyAnd I'm slowly figuring out to say no to some of those, but there's still some boards that I'm on. Um, but I think that's important to get to know, you know, all the different people in the community that way. 'cause not everybody has animals, but, you learn other people through all the organizations that you get recruited to right off the bat.
MattYep, yep. No doubt about it. So from a practical application standpoint, um, if somebody is sitting here and, and, uh, doesn't feel like they can have this conversation with their local vet, doesn't have a local vet. Cow calf producer... let's start there. 'cause that's probably, it sounds like, as I hear from folks and see some info on who's listening to this. That's, that's probably the lion's share of listeners. Cow, calf. What does a herd health protocol, ideally in generality, let's not use brand names or anything like that, but starting from, let's say baby calves, we're here in March that we're recording this for the next year for both calves and cows... what sets that herd up for success from an inoculation and let's go vaccine, maybe deworming, timing, all that stuff.
KaileyWe just went through yours here. So
Mattwe did, I'm pretty wet. I didn't bring the sheet, so
KaileyI'm gonna see if you remember. Don't have a cheat sheet here. Um, so we're gonna start like. With baby calves. They're getting the antibodies from mom, from colostrum. So if you can push 'em out to 60, 90 days at branding time, I know not everyone brands, but that's still what we all call it. Sure. Is branding. Get the first round of a respiratory vaccine, whether that's internasal or if you're pushing out a little further, injectable, um, and then a black leg. And then if you're banding or cutting, I would do it at that age or dehorning. Everything painful you can do as baby's still on, mom? Putting back on the key. Um, deworming, I know we discussed a little bit,
Mattshe doesn't like me, deworming my 60 to 80 day old
Kaileycalves, but he said he had a wreck, so, um, we're not touching that one with the 10 foot pole anymore. We're just gonna let that one ride. Um, so deworming plus or minus there. Um. And then, you know, pre-weaning is important when you get, uh, little further down the road. And there's, I know we've discussed it a lot of that study where there's, I think you maybe even had Miles on the three we did, um, vaccine versus two vaccine.
MattYep.
KaileyUh, and less morbidity in the two vaccine calves, then the three vaccine calves. So that kind of pushed me a little bit and we tried to do a lot pre-weaning and then at weaning, try to mini minimize stress as much as possible. Um, they've had two rounds of vaccine at that point and wean 'em off their mama. Um, pre-weaning, still a respiratory, a booster, black leg, great time to implant also, if you're gonna do that, especially with today's market. Mm-hmm. Um, I feel like that's an underused tool here in the cattle industry. D worm again and then, um, wean them and good to go there. Cows at brand or at, uh, preg check time, is the time I would deworm and do, uh. Modified live if they're on that program or killed if they're on a killed program. But, uh, uh, Vibrio-Lepto, Respiratory, black leg is also one that we do. And it depends on probably where you're at in the United States on that one. But, um, and preg check time is also a great time to talk to your veterinarian. You know, when we're at the shoot, that's, you have our ear, we're not on the phone. That's the time to talk to us. 'Cause we're not just, you know, preg checking, we're looking at body condition score, we're looking at feet, we're looking at udders. Um, you know, so kind of ask them what are you seeing? Um, it's a great time to talk to your veterinarian, and semen test times also. I mean, we've sat by the chute and had some great conversations. Oh yeah. Yep. Always entertaining.
MattAlways entertaining.
KaileySometimes
Mattproductive.
KaileyYeah, sometimes productive. But you're in the monotonous just doing the same thing over and over.
MattRight.
KaileyWhat a great time to talk about something that can benefit your herd in the future. So.
MattSo back on the calves.
KaileyYep.
MattUh, specifically those baby calves, um, intranasal versus injectable, what are your thoughts in the,
Kaileyso I've switched on this even in the time that we've been
Mattmm-hmm.
KaileyUh, together. So, intranasal works better in younger calves because the, it's using a different part of the immune system than an injectable. So if you're doing it young, inter nasal is the way I go right now. Um, if you're not doing branding or if you're waiting until they're 120 days old, I don't know if I'd do an inter nasal, I'd probably do an injectable at that point, because mom's colostrum is, the antibodies from that are going down and they have the ability to respond to the vaccine as an injectable, as they're older. But when you're doing injectable, when they're young mom's antibodies interfere with the injectable vaccine and they're not responding as well.
MattAnd the BVD component of that, probably not as necessary on those early shots. And so those internasal that don't have that in there, you can get away with
Kaileyyou. Yeah. As
Mattlong as
Kaileyyou, they have an injectable that you can give with it. Yeah. But you don't wanna do a modified live internasal of like BVD 'cause then you're
Mattright,
Kaileyyou're gonna spread it amongst everybody and have a wreck. But
Mattyeah. Speaking of BVD and spreading it amongst everyone, PI persistently infectious BVD testing.
KaileyYeah.
MattUm, still recommend, I presume?
KaileyUm, it's definitely situational. Um, okay. I, I, of course recommend it, but on who I really push for it is situational.
MattRight. And, and the reasons for doing that, if you've done it in the past and not had PI cases would be if you've got neighboring yearlings
KaileyExactly.
MattWhile the cows are pregnant. You
Kaileycan control your herd, but you can't control who Neighbors. Right.
MattRight.
KaileyAnd we are in Stocker country, so, and I've, I push a lot of my stocker guys. There's a lot of the stocker guys that PI test, I mean, a huge percentage due around here.
MattAnd that's one of those, um, you know, we, we do it because being a seed stock herd, it's you have to just an insurance policy to make sure that we are not sending something we haven't, luckily, knock on wood,
Kaileyyou've
Mattnever
had
Kaileyone,
Matthaven't never had one in 25 years. Yeah. And yet we still do it. And it's one of those things that we just feel like you have to Yes. Um, but, but then there's other areas of the country, of other herds that, they'll find some every year. Yes. Especially bought, purchased cattle. Yes. And things like that at certain regions and areas and herds. So, um, on the cow side, modified live versus killed. you mentioned it, but let's go a little bit deeper for somebody that doesn't know which they can use,
Kaileyright?
MattIf they haven't used modified live in the past on those females,
Kaileyyou have to use a kil.
MattYou have to use kil,
Kaileyor you'll have the potential to abort calves,
Mattright? If, what's the benefit of moving on to a live, uh, cow vaccine protocol and, um, and why is it worth doing in your opinion?
KaileySo modified live in cows. If you've, if you have a, on a modified live program, you can vaccinate your calves with a modified live vaccine without concern of that vaccine. Aborting your cows, right? Because when you turn your calves back in with the cows, they shed the virus. And a lot of, if you guys read the vaccine bottles, a lot of 'em say, um, can't be given to calves unless the mom has been vaccinated with modified life. Right, right. So that's the reason that it's important and it, the calves respond better to a modified life vaccine than a killed vaccine. So, um, a lot of the calves are brought up on a modified live vaccine and then switched over to a killed, um, just because it's easier
MattYeah.
KaileyFor a lot of guys. And there's been papers that show that your titers are actually high with the killed vaccine after they've been brought up on a modified live vaccine. But then you have to be careful when you vaccinate your calves and what you do with them and do you separate 'em and for how long? And the, uh, drug companies may not back you, if you're not using a modified live on your cows too.
MattThat's one of those debates that I assume if we had five vets on this podcast, we'd have 10 different suggestions. I
Kaileyagree. I
Mattdid.
KaileyI'm trying to be careful on what I say so that I don't,
Mattand you can find research to back either pro protocol
KaileyYes. Yes.
MattAnd say that this one is better. Yep. Um, and so yeah, we, you
Kaileyjust have to find what works best for you.
MattRight, right. And we've tried several different options through the years, um, without getting too crazy. And we have come back to here anyway, staying on a modified live annual booster protocol. And, and when we switched it was easy when we switched off of that to a killed protocol
Kaileyswitching back on,
Mattwhen we came back onto it, it required a couple extra trips through the chute at inopportune times, but to make sure that we got those cows back.
Kailey'cause you can't vaccin vaccinate when they're br You have to vaccin 'em when they're open. The
Mattfirst
Kaileytime. The first time, right? Yes. After that game on, you're good. But.
MattBut we, we felt like, we lost some ground, especially on calf health, not necessarily on cows, uh, but on calf health. By not having a modified live program on those cows, whether it was just the year, I, who knows. But, um, but we went back to what we had been doing for 30 years. Right. Uh, which even though 30 years ago it was extra, actually extra label. But our vet had us,
KaileyI feel like
Mattyou
Kaileywere definitely rolling the dice on that one, but we
Mattgot along fine. Um, so anyways, it's, uh, you had to be
Kaileyat the cutting edge of that one. 'cause 30 years ago.
MattYeah, that was, it was a long time ago. Yeah. Um, 'cause it was before I moved back home and I've been back here for 22 in May. Good. So, um, yeah. Yeah. But again, that's one of those conversations that you and your local vet. Need to have and, and you have been great to bring in even animal health, vets that from an animal health company, technical vets that, that you trust and, and the one I can think of, and we're not gonna name names or brands, but this is a guy that, um, is willing to say, you know what, we don't have this product, but this is what you ought to use.
KaileyThat's when I start to believe what they're saying. Yeah, a hundred percent. If they're just pushing their product. But I trust this guy. I mean, if he's willing to talk about a different drug companies product medicine. Yeah. And he, once that have been in practice, I mean, 'cause your local veterinarian knows a little about a lot, but some of those guys know a lot about, you know, the vaccine and the immunology and we had to take an immunology class. But once we got past that, check the box, the check the box and move on. Yeah.
MattYeah. And, and that's, again, it's nutrition. I would even say, you know, genetic selection. There are so many folks out there who, that's their specialty. Yes, that's their business. And, um, I like to know a little bit about a lot. That's one of the reasons that I love doing this podcast is 'cause I learn something every time I have a guest on that I didn't know.
KaileyRight.
MattBut at the end of the day, I know my limits and I know that I don't know as much about balancing rations as a consulting nutritionist. I agree. I know that I don't know as much about virology as what you or somebody that you can talk to. Right. And so, yeah, I leave that to the experts and find people I trust and surround myself with them. And that's, that's where I think that's an important part. Yeah. Build
Kaileya team.
MattYeah, exactly. Build a team. And, and Yvette is a huge, huge part of that team. What else you gotta have?
KaileyI don't know.
MattYou gotta have something else for me.
KaileyI kept all my stories Good. So that I,
Mattwell,
Kaileyso I don't get in trouble.
MattLet, let's, if, if. Baxter Black is now gone. And so, uh, you don't have to do any poetry, but give me the worst. Without naming names. Give me, give me the worst cow wreck, vet wreck that you have witnessed. Chute side or,
KaileyI think the best thing about me is my memory is short, so I'm willing to do about anything. 'cause I don't remember how bad it was the, the first time. I mean, that's
Mattwhy you keep coming back to Dalebanks.
KaileyThis is just an easy one. Uh, I, I mean, just Saturday I had 126 pound calf we pulled and I was just
MattOh.
KaileySo excited to get it out of there. It was backwards. And so then I was trying to take a selfie with it, which I'm sure is not the best. But I had to show Braxton. And then he sent me Braxton's, the other veterinarian, at our clinic and he said, mine beat you. It was 132 pounds. Oh my gosh. My Atlanta.
MattOh, both same day?
KaileyUh, no, his was two weeks ago I think. Oh.
MattStill better not have been out of the Dalebanks bull.
KaileyIt was not Dang. bulls.
MattOh, there we go. There we go. Well, I guess the American Association is not sponsoring today's podcast.
KaileyI don't know if it was registered. Maybe it just, uh,
Mattyeah, sure. Sale barn calf, somebody bought and developed
Kaileysurely,
Mattgosh, 130 pounders. That's,
Kaileyand he got it off the back too, so.
MattAnd the cow was fine.
KaileyThe cow was fine. Yeah.
MattUnbelievable.
KaileyTake it and run
Mattas you, uh, as you said that you were so glad to get that calf out. I wanted to say that that made two of you. Yeah.
KaileyYeah. I would agree. When the feet is sticking out or that, you know, you know, they're big. Ugh.
MattRear feet. Even.
KaileyRear feet. Yeah.
MattSo that's the best wreck that you can think of. I
Kaileymean, that was just this week. I don't, you know, we've had a lot of C-sections. We've had some wrecks, but. You, you know, accidentally getting into grain and had, oh gosh, 18 dead or,
Mattoh gosh, yes.
KaileyUh, I mean, we have some wrecks,
Mattso this isn't a fun one, but we talked about Theileria early. I don't think I realize the prevalence that that may, or that the effect that that can have, especially on a naive population without, and I don't know what, how vet client privilege works and all this, but obviously without talking about exact clients, what do you see on that when, especially maybe a stocker operator buys hot cattle that have Theileria uses the same needle
Kaileyand spreads it like wildfire? Yeah.
MattWhat are we talking there that. Like
Kaileyhow many,
Mattyeah. How, what percentage of a naive herd can get that? Are you seeing come down symptomatic
Kaileywith that? A huge percentage. Um,
Mattso more than five or 10%.
KaileyOh yeah. I'm talking 50 to 70% of the herd has been shown. Symptomatic herd is a loose term of bought cattle. Okay. So, um, and there's no treatment is the part that, and, you know, we're trying anecdotal things 'cause there's no,
Mattis anything working?
KaileyNot that we have found.
MattGosh. So, be wary, be vigilant. Change needles.
KaileyChange
Mattneedles.
KaileyThat's probably the biggest one that we're gonna push this year, is
Mattkeep the tick ticks down, which gets harder every year. Yeah.
KaileyThat's
Mattwho's, yeah.
KaileyI mean, my daughter had a tick behind her ear the other day and, and she is like the most indoorsy girl in the world, so I'm like, where in the world did you get that?
MattWow. In March. Early March. In March, yeah. Yeah. I, I've seen big ones already on cows and. The first week of March and yeah, we,
Kaileyit's gonna be a bad one, I think. It didn't get that cold.
MattNo, it didn't.
KaileyBurning helps they say, but I don't know.
MattYeah. Yeah. What other things besides Theileria, screw Worm, new World Screw worm, which isn't new. What's on the horizon? What do we need to be looking out for besides the same old same olds with respiratory and pink eye and foot rot and all these types of things.
KaileyI feel like they're, it's the same thing. Yeah. All the time. Just new ways to present, you know, it just, it's, it's never changing. It's just the same bugs it seems like, and they're getting resistant, I feel like, to our. Our, uh, drugs. There's no new drugs that I know of in the horizon. So
Mattthere's a question. You, you don't hear of any new antibiotics that,
Kaileyuh, no. Preto Flex was the new one last year. Um, respiratory, but you don't really hear, nobody's talking about anything. It just takes so much money to get a new drug on market. That,
Mattand is it,
Kaileyit's crazy.
MattIs it also this anti antibiotic slant from a consumer standpoint? I mean, are, are company's less willing to put millions of dollars into a trial for an antibiotic that they know in 10 years either A, isn't going to work right as well, or b is going to have so much consumer pushback? Uh, especially if it's related to any human pharmaceuticals.
KaileyI, and if there's already a drug out there that's. You know, working. I, I can see that. But you know, with
Mattthese new ones,
Kaileywith new diseases, I feel like maybe we'll get new, new products.
MattYeah.
KaileyNot everything's bacterial though. I mean, Theileria I think is a protozoa. Don't quote me on that, but, so antibacterials in theory shouldn't work against it, so, right.
MattSame way with some of these viruses.
KaileyYes.
MattMost of them,
Kaileyyes.
MattYeah. Well, I mean, it's, again, prevention
Kaileyyeah.
MattAn ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Know
Kaileywhat you're buying and try to decrease your chances. I'm just not a risk taker. I've decided I'm, I am in things I can control. I guess.
MattYou've
Kaileygot three, as we talked about, vet clinics. Yes.
MattThree vet clinics in 12 years.
KaileyYes. Okay. Well, I'm not a risk taker in like, I'm not gonna be buying cattle and starting them 'cause Wowza.
MattYeah,
Kaileyjust the, that's our producers are no wonder they're. Casino night's, nothing for them. Like, let's do this.
MattYeah. Aren't you glad though that, uh, there are people who are
Kaileywilling to do that? I'm super happy. It's
Mattjob
Kaileysecurity,
Mattright?
KaileyYeah. They must have some ulcers though. My Atlanta.
MattThat's fun.
KaileyI've started my own little cattle, uh, sale barn side quests here, and the amount of time and energy I spend with these cattle is just dumb. I just, I, uh, have a newfound respect for my clients on it.
MattThere you go. Well, that's good that, uh, I'm glad, I'm glad you understand. I do How it is that we're going to,
Kaileyyeah. I bought a moo call. I don't know if you've ever seen those.
MattWhat's that?
KaileyIt's like a, uh, it goes wraps around the tail and it's supposed to send you alerts when they start calving.
MattOh, okay. Yeah.
KaileyFor my booming ten head. So I thought, I need this. And I have spent so much time with this dumb product.
MattSo there's
Kaileyanother sponsor
Mattthat will not be sorry,
Kaileybut it worked. It worked. But if you know their calving date, 'cause you have to take it off every four days while I'm buying sale barn stuff. So you don't know exactly when they're gonna calve, you know,
MattI thought you were a vet. I
Kaileysay P eight, but sometimes my p eights last a little longer than I'd like 'em to. So my alert has been going off a lot. So I've made a lot of trips to town for false alarms there. 'cause I refuse to take it off of every four days. So.
MattInteresting.
KaileyThere's so much more technology once you get into, you know, I'm so focused on vet stuff, I sometimes forget there's other products still related to vet. Yeah. But that, you know, producers use that as just awesome.
MattWhat, uh, what's the next technology you see? Being huge in the beef industry, cow industry, whatever the case may be.
KaileyI mean, if they could figure out other ways to preg check cattle. I know they have blood, but that's not very, I don't know. You've gotta wait on results. But if there was a way to, if
Mattso, you're a vet and you're asking, it would be someone to solve the issue of having to pay a
Kaileyvet to come and sleeve Exactly when they're gonna cab. Like that would be awesome.
MattI agree. I will. I will. As a seed stock guy, I will say that I want somebody to find out a better way of truly evaluating a bull's ability to breed, to breed cows successfully. That's fair than just
Kaileybecause. Just 'cause they're semen good doesn't mean they're gonna go out and breed cows.
MattAnd just because they're borderline doesn't mean they're not.
KaileyI
Mattwould agree with that. I mean, I've seen it both ways. I've seen one pass with a very good 90 something that's. They have too many opens and I've seen one that you tell me can't get cows bred and they breed and he breeds 'em all every season. So I day, I would agree with that. Will don't tell stories about how we used to evaluate a bull's breeding sound and a laugh.
KaileyYou can just see the seamen like, and it's just that day. Yeah.
MattI mean, yeah, it's one snippet in time. So that's the technology that I hope somebody, one of you young aspiring vet students will, uh, figure out a better mousetrap.
KaileyI think the technology thing, there's just so much, I mean, oh,
Mattit's the wild, the
Kaileycollar. I mean, know you guys have gotten on board with the collars.
MattYeah.
KaileyIt just is mind blowing how much, even in the past five years, technology has played a part.
MattI think the, the brain power and the money that has been put into some of these new tools, I. coupled with the profitability in the cow calf segment today.
KaileyYeah,
MattI think it we're, we'll see more technology adoption. We are seeing more technology adoption and, and one more thing that I left out. The lack of labor.
KaileyYeah, I would
Mattagree. Of skilled, skilled labor. Um, so when you've got cows that are worth as much as they are calves that are worth as much as they are, it, it, um, if a person's honest, it makes some sense to try some of these technologies. Yeah. Just to be sure that we see before it's too late that something needs addressed. So yeah, I think the adoption of some of these technologies will be unbelievably quick in the next couple of years. I think
Kaileyit
Mattis exciting.
KaileyOpportunities are endless.
MattYeah. Yeah. And, and, and I think that it changes, I guess I should ask you, does it change your relationship and how you diagnose things? If you've got somebody that's using a GPS collar or one of these implants or tags or whatever the case may be, then may. Yeah. I mean, I think it allows of you
Kaileyguys to catch metabolic, allows things quicker. Yeah. And then, you know, you'll bring 'em to, usually when someone comes to the clinics, 'cause they've doctored it three times and it's too late, it's not getting better. Well there's not a whole lot we're gonna add to that come unless it, it's like, aley,
Mattdo your job doctor
Kaileyor something. I know, I know. I don't have a miracle drug, but if I did, I would be Yeah. So I think getting the opportunity to see it sooner, see it
Mattearly Yeah.
KaileyWould be awesome.
MattYeah. Yeah. And I, I think that that's, I think it's going to happen. Oh, I
Kaileydo too.
MattIt, it is happening. It's just finding which technologies are gonna stand the rancher test and, and work and be practical and the environments that they're asking 'em. To be used in. Yeah. So yeah, it's exciting stuff. What next for flying three? Tackle the world.
KaileyUh, no, uh, no flying four on the horizon there. Hopefully get, you know, we were opening a racetrack, I guess, here in Eureka. So
Mattwhen you say we, you don't mean the vet clinic?
KaileyWe are, not
Mattwe,
Kaileybut I need to find somebody, uh, that really has a horse interest because that is not me. Um, Kenzie's behind us. She's doing a, uh, internship equine only, or maybe not only, but heavily, in, at Brock Veterinary Clinic in Texas. So that's
Mattwhere all the horse vets are.
KaileyYeah. So she's going down there and then hopefully we can get her back here and then she could be the horse guru for me. 'cause that is not my, not my cup of tea. So.
MattAs I heard a vet say one time, I don't do horses.
KaileyI will do it if I have to. Yeah. But
Mattyeah. Well, and and luckily there are plenty of vets who love that and are very good at it,
Kaileywhich is great. Yeah. We just need, yeah. So
Mattonce again, find the specialty.
KaileyFind Yeah.
MattOr the specialist.
KaileySpecialist. Yes. Yeah. Find somebody that can help you.
MattWell, we are very appreciative that you are here and that you are growing and that you're willing to take on all these new challenges. Because Yeah. I, I, I am, we're spoiled. I'll be honest. We're spoiled because I, when people talk about the fact that there are quote unquote no young vets that wanna be in large animal practice, I. Can kinda shrug my shoulders and for once say, I, I dunno what you're talking about. Usually I'm right there with them on most of these discussions. But this is one area that, um, we get the opportunity to say, yeah, we're, we're lucky. We're, we're fortunate.
KaileyHopefully the generation after you also gets that
MattYeah.
KaileyAbility. So that's the goal is just to keep someone in the rural area and recruit young individuals to come back and hopefully buy in and
MattYep.
KaileyKeep it going. That's, that's the goal's. I don't wanna be the 80-year-old veterinarian, still trying to find somebody to buy my clinic and. Just shut down. So,
Mattand odd. Oddly enough, I don't wanna be the 80-year-old year old rancher that's still, um, calling, calling you. 'cause um, 'cause I, yeah, I'm, I'm that oddball that actually thinks that he might retire sometime and not just do this until he is in the grave. But we'll see. We'll
Kaileysee. Ah, I don't know. That does not go with your, uh,
Mattwhy does everyone say that I've met your
Kaileyfather?
MattYeah, I, I understand. Yes, I am in the genetics business. I should, uh, you should know. I should know.
KaileyYeah. Tom's still right there with him. Oh. So yeah. I have a feeling you will be too.
MattYeah.
KaileyMay say, dad, I got this. But yeah,
Mattwe'll see. We'll see. We'll
Kaileysee.
MattBut
KaileyI'm excited.
MattThat's good. Well, we're excited to have you and, uh, excited to do the podcast. It's been fun. And, uh, keep up the great work.
KaileyThank you. Thanks for having me.
MattYou bet. Thanks Kaylee. Thanks again for joining us for Practically Ranching, brought to you by Dalebanks Angus, all the best to you and your family. May God bless each of you and we'll talk again soon. I.
