The Veterinarian's Position in the Economic Crisis

Abstract

With all due respect to our small animal colleagues, let me first say that my comments are restricted in scope to that field of our profession that I refer to as "Food Animal Medicine." In that this is the AABP meeting, I suppose that's assumed, but in a true economic crisis I'm sure they have problems too. True, but not ones I'm going to talk about.

I suppose I'm just aging, but somehow I get the feeling that if we haven't been we're becoming a "crisis" oriented society. This crisis, that crisis, money crisis, morals crisis, energy crisis. Today you want to hear about an economic crisis. Picking someone who's deeply involved in the cattle industry was sure a good prospect. My boss, Ken Monfort, recently referred to himself as a "cattle feeder with far less equity than a year ago." That was one hell of an understatement.