Building a practice. Budget forecasts and performance monitoring

In order to run a small business effectively you must be in financial control and this means that you have to be aware how the business is performing. If you wait until your accountant has got out the annual accounts valuable time has been wasted in making necessary decisions and corrections to poor trends in your business so monthly/quarterly records are required. Decisions as to whether you can afford to take another assistant, set up a branch surgery, the level of your fee increases, whether to buy or lease your cars; are all dependent on having available up to date financial knowledge of your business. If you have a microcomputer in the practice you can use spreadsheets which will allow the accurate prediction of cash flow or profitability. You can also ask the question 'what happens if...?' and get the answer in seconds. But even without a computer, financial control can be easily maintained if you are prepared to spend a couple of hours each month with your practice figures.     

Preparing a small business for sale

Have you made the decision to sell your veterinary practice and enter a new stage of lifé If so, the next big question is how do you maximise the sale price and minimise your capital gains tax. of such points and potentially bring them up to the standard of the rest of your business. For example is your store or practice in need of a refit? Do you need to update equipment, train staff or review stock choices?     

Move your practice to new heights with down-to-earth hiring techniques.

Like preparing for intricate surgery, successful staffing requires preparation, mastery of the subject matter, and skill. The employees who work in veterinary practices form the basis of the business and reflect the owners' own values. Giving attention to what you want your practice to be, whom you want working with you, and how the environment keeps the staff productive matters. Identifying the right culture, hiring people who find congruence with the practice's culture, and consistently applying these principles will help your practice soar to new heights.     

The marketing of herd health and production management services on Dutch dairy farms: perceptions of dairy farmers and their veterinary surgeons

A questionnaire-based survey on veterinary herd health and production management services was conducted on 194 specialist dairy veterinarians and 466 dairy farmers. The farmers were randomly selected from greater than 6,000 farmer clients of the surveyed veterinarians. This paper reports these survey findings and the findings of an earlier survey conducted among the veterinarians. The survey included questions on the attributes of the service itself, the practitioners delivering the service, reasons for participation and the expected future of herd health and production management services. Reasons farmers participated in herd health and production management programmes included; access to routine screening of their herd; increasing profits; and receiving regular veterinary advice or solutions to remedy existing problems. Advantages of participation named included: good management support; higher profits; structural solutions to problems; and being better informed. Differences between farming styles were observed, pointing to the different needs and goals of farming styles. Farmers cited high costs and the time investment required as major disadvantages. The proportion of farmers citing these reasons was lower than expected by the veterinarians. In the future, preventive healthcare will be the main reason of farmers to participate. Farmers who are not using the service can potentially be encouraged to engage the services after gaining increased insight into the herd health and management service structure, the planning of activities, the cost-benefit of the service, veterinary surgeons being more co-operative with other farm advisors and veterinarians being more willing to pay attention to quality issues on the dairy farm.     

Experiences as an expert witness: Educating people while under oath

In summary, therefore, my experiences as a witness have been divided into three major areas. In the first, in what was essentially the political process, the game was charge and counter-charge, and the rules, such as they were, were fairly loose. In the second area, that of administrative hearings, the rulesare somewhat tighter, but still not as restrictive as those of a full court session. In court session you are always sworn, carefully qualified as an expert and almost invariably subjected to searching cross- examination. The rules of evidence are strictly adhered to. This is the situation where your freedom of action is most restricted, and is the most rigorous of the situations in which you will use your expertise. However, in the last analysis, you should remember that all that is required of you are simple statements of fact,and your best opinions. Make your statements simple, consistent, and concise, and keep your answers on cross-examination as short as possible.Expert appearances under any of these conditions are very stressful circumstances. They will absorb your attention entirely for some time before you make your appearance. You will feel totally drained after them,and images from the hearing will reverberate in your mind for days. They are, nevertheless, ultimately satisfying experiences. This is because the only measure of the quality of your research is how much it changes the way things are done. Appearances as an expert are a sure sign that you are contributing to change, and speak the significance of your expertise.     

Inside story: Scientific Committee

Val Clare, a veterinary surgeon from South Wales, completes the 26 mile, 385 yard distance at the 1997 London Marathon in an impressive time. This year, for the third year in succession, Val will be running in aid of Petsavers. The marathon will take place on Sunday, April 26. If you or any of your clients have a place to run in the 1998 London Marathon, then Petsavers would be delighted If you would join Its team. Would-be sponsors and runners for the Petsavers team should contact Val Clare, Lock Cottage, 24 Five Locks Road, Pontnewydd, Cwmbran NP44 1BT, telephone 01633 869768, for information and sponsorship forms     

Developing the production medicine practice

The concept of dairy production medicine has matured. The programs are probably essential for our profession to remain relevant to the dairy industry. Yet delivery of the services has lagged far behind the concept. Delivery lags because it is not simply the addition of some new techniques to an old practice; development of production medicine programs requires fundamental changes in the skills we bring to our work, changes in the way we relate to our clients and our community, and changes in the priorities that shape our practices. That is the challenge. The process is demanding, it is complex, it is sometimes painful, and in my view, it is absolutely necessary.     

Mastitis control services and utilization of milk somatic cell count data by veterinarians in Ohio

A telephone survey was conducted of 50 randomly selected Ohio-licensed veterinarians engaged in dairy practice. The survey's purpose was to determine the extent of mastitis control services offered by practitioners and to assess their utilization of milk somatic cell count (SCC) data on individual cows available from the Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA). During the preceding year, 96% (48/50) of practitioners surveyed had performed bacteriologic culture of milk samples. Practitioners were twice as likely to have performed culture on milk from mastitic cows that failed to respond to treatment as they were to have performed culture for purposes of identifying pathogen trends within a herd. Veterinarians in predominantly dairy practices were more likely to have completed bacteriologic examination of milk in their own laboratories than were veterinarians who were engaged in less than 50% dairy practice (P = 0.016). Most veterinarians (83%) reported that coagulase test results were available or that Staphylococcus aureus was differentiated from other staphylococcal species. Streptococcus agalactiae was not differentiated from other streptococcal species by 35% of practitioners surveyed. For veterinarians with clients enrolled in the DHIA, 91% (43/47) reported looking at, discussing, or otherwise using the DHIA records. Eighty-one percent (35/43) of veterinarians who had clients using services from the DHIA reported that clients also received individual cow milk SCC results. Veterinarians engaged in predominantly, dairy practice expressed a greater familiarity with the linear score method of SCC reporting than did veterinarians whose practices were less than 50% dairy (P = 0.085); however, both groups reported a preference for raw SCC data.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Building a practice (14). Bookkeeping

While many aspects of bookkeeping may seem tiresome and time consuming it is the essential key to running an efficient business through proper financial management. The secret to good bookkeeping is to keep it up to date on a daily basis. A further article will look at how these figures can be used to monitor the financial performance of your practice.     

Health and liability hazards in a veterinary hospital

There is a wealth of information available to you concerning the methods and means of making the hospital a safer place for yourself, employees and clients. In addition, a book could be devoted to the safety of the animal patients. Your insurance carrier can help you spot som potentially dangerous conditions and suggest ways in which you can make the changes necessary to bring your hospital up to safety standards. Remember, a good preventive program is one of the best defenses against litigation.     

Babesiosis and heartwater: threats without boundaries.

Suppose one of your clients from southern Florida starts talking about cattle egrets while you are vaccinating her cat. It seems she found a nearly dead egret near the cattle pen a few days ago, picked it up, and noticed a number of what looked like small ticks on the legs. Or, suppose you are called out to a small dairy in central Texas to look at some cows that are feverish and anemic. The first animal you examine has a few brown ticks attached just under the tail. Finally, perhaps you are looking at a lame tortoise for a reptile fancier, a new client, and find a large, colorful tick on a hind leg, well up under the shell. Ring any bells? Egrets are great hosts for the immature stages of Amblyomma ticks and have been captured and marked in the eastern Caribbean, then recaptured in the Florida Keys. Those cattle ticks in Texas might be acaricide-resistant Boophilus ticks that originated in Mexico. The Amblyomma tick on the tortoise could well have "hitch-hiked" all the way from South Africa. By now you remember that both Amblyomma and Boophilus ticks are efficient vectors of two tickborne diseases in this hemisphere, heartwater (in the case of Amblyomma) and babesiosis (transmitted by Boophilus ticks). Both of these diseases are exotic to the United States, and because our livestock are considered to be totally susceptible, an introduced infection could result in high initial death losses (approximately 70%); thus, both the ticks and the diseases pose immediate threats to the health and economic security of United States animal industries. Most importantly, you, whether as a small animal or large animal practitioner, are the first line of defense against such exotic diseases and their vectors.     

Refining the clinical question: the first step in evidence-based veterinary medicine.

The ability to translate a clinical problem seen in practice into a focused and well-formed answerable clinical question is one of the hardest steps in practicing evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM). Asking answerable clinical questions that relate to your patient is the first evidence-based skill a veterinarian needs to learn, and it forms the cornerstone of the practice of EBVM. Like other clinical skills, the more you practice and work on refining clinical questions, the more precise these questions are and the easier the EBVM process becomes. This article reviews the different aspects of an answerable clinical question, its structure, and how to formulate questions better to get needed answers to clinical problems.     

Conference opening address

Extract

I should like to thank you for your welcome and the Executive of your Association for the invitation to open this, your 1969 annual conference. I am sure that you will agree that this is an opportune time in the development of your Association for the Director-General of Agriculture to address you and for me in particular, being in the first year of that appointment.     

Normal reproductive parameters in large "California-style" dairies

Reproductive parameters are important in evaluating modern dairy management performance. Successful dairying results from constant attention to daily events, requiring more sensitive and immediate measurements of performance. Definitions of formulas, numerators, denominators, and population included or excluded are essential for proper interpretation and comparison of results. Veterinarians understanding these statistics and indexes, and using stratification of data to investigate production losses, will serve their clients well. My advice is to approach a herd with a perceived reproductive problem by evaluating these parameters; they are the means of determining if a problem exists and, if so, where it is. Find out how the various parameters are calculated so your interpretation will be correct. Herds with average days in milk of less than 165, culling rates below 25 per cent, and a milking rate of 85 per cent or more do not have long-term reproductive problems. If management techniques fail to achieve these levels, first look at those areas involving people. Conception rates measure all the components that, when multiplied, equal fertility: insemination technique, semen quality, heat detection accuracy, and the cow factors involved. Poor conception rates require investigation into these areas individually. Heat detection intensity leading to prolonged days in milk at first service is another common finding. Comparison of inseminators and sires may identify a problem area. Cow factors require more intense investigation to determine their cause. Use the information outlined in the periparturient period to assist you. In most cases, a combination of failures in many of the independent factors creates the problems in reproduction that we encounter. A large data base including all the information discussed and additional information is necessary to define, correct, and monitor reproductive management performance. Since performance ultimately is determined by the quality of the labor force, ongoing monitoring for accountability and education is necessary for success.     

Personnel management in dairy practice. The office staff and technicians

Beginning or expanding the use of nonprofessional personnel in dairy practice can increase practice output. This may occur by freeing professional time or by increasing the services provided by the practice. Careful consideration must be given to recruiting and hiring practices, to ensure that the person most qualified for the position is the one hired. Sound training will get new employees off to a productive start immediately. Delegation, communication, and compensation all help to keep employees motivated and satisfied.     

乳品香精的研究进展

随着乳制品风味越来越广泛地受到关注，对乳品香精的研究促进着该产业的迅速发展。本文归纳近年来国内外在乳品香精领域的研究进展，梳理了一些常见乳制品的主要风味物质，对其不良风味的产生原因进行分析，并且根据乳品香精的制备技术提供了一些解决方案，对未来风味乳制品的发展及乳品香精的进一步开发进行展望，提供新思路。     

Succession planning.

This article provides the reader with an appreciation of the diverse elements that go into a buy-sell, affiliation, or merger situation for veterinary practices. In the changing market place of American veterinary medicine, old paradigms no longer hold comfort. The generational differences are briefly explored herein as well as the new economic realities. A few examples are offered to illustrate just how much variability exists in the current business of veterinary medicine and the subsequent practice transitions needed to enhance value. Functioning models are explored, as well as affiliation and merger options. Practice valuation is discussed in general terms, referencing the cutting-edge factors. The six-point summary provides almost all practices a solid operational base for daily operations and succession planning.     

Comparative study of the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of large animal veterinarians, dairy farmers, and dairy processors in Michigan on bovine somatotropin.

A cross-sectional epidemiologic study was conducted to evaluate two objectives. The first was to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of large animal (dairy) veterinarians, dairy farmers, and dairy processors in Michigan toward the use of bovine somatotropin (BST). The second was to compare and contrast the data from the large animal veterinarians, dairy farmers, and dairy processors according to the knowledge, attitude, and behavior variables. A written questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data relating to the objectives. Three basic types of questions were asked of each group: (1) how much do you know about BST? (knowledge-based question), (2) how do you feel about BST? (attitude-based question), and (3) how would you use BST or use dairy products produced through BST biotechnology (behavior-based question)?     

Continuing education needs assessment for on-farm food safety services

OBJECTIVE: To identify the perceived market or client demand for dairy on-farm food safety services by veterinarians, the need for a food safety continuing education program, and the educational issues that might be addressed in an on-farm food safety curriculum. DESIGN: Survey. STUDY POPULATION: Consulting dairy veterinarians, government veterinarians located in California, and meat packers slaughtering cull dairy cows in California. PROCEDURE: Results of a questionnaire supplied to veterinarians and telephone interviews with meat packer representatives were analyzed by use of univariate and multivariate logistic regression procedures. RESULTS: Some meat packers considered the quality of incoming cull dairy cattle as a control point for food safety hazards. More than 50% of dairy and government-employed veterinarians believed that a current market for on-farm food safety services exists; > 85% believed that a potential market exists. Duration since graduation was negatively correlated with belief in a current market. Government-employed veterinarians were more likely to believe in a current market. Veterinarians were more likely to express a strong interest in offering on-farm food safety services if they believed a current market exists, indicated that they already offer such services, or listed residues and pathogens as the most important issues facing the dairy industry. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Although a potential market for on-farm food safety services is perceived, veterinarians are unsure of their role in this area. new demands of meat packers slaughtering cull dairy cows may be the motivation practitioners need to broach the subject of food safety with clients.