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Published: December 22, 2022
Cow-Calf, Features, Livestock
For some, a career is a calling. They are compelled to pursue it, even in times when it isn’t enjoyable, or even profitable. This describes many beef producers.
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When most people think of British Columbia, they think of white-capped waves on the Pacific Ocean off the Sunshine Coast,…
Those who work with primary producers often do so because it is their calling as well. In this way, veterinarians and producers are a lot alike. Running a vet practice is a huge risk. Margins can be small. There are never enough hours in the day. It is difficult to retain employees in physical jobs and rural areas. Yet it is very fulfilling work.
And, much like farming, it can be challenging to find the next generation. There are fewer and fewer vets interested in living in rural areas and serving livestock farmers. There are even fewer willing, or able, to take over food animal practices. In the companion animal sector, practices are increasingly bought up by large corporations. Vet school does little to prepare graduates to run a business. Few young veterinarians leap into running a practice.
Cattle veterinarian Dr. Blake Balog is one of those few who took that leap of faith early on. Balog operates Bow Valley Livestock Health in Brooks, Alta. Bow Valley Livestock Health is a large animal practice with a strong focus on cow-calf medicine. The practice provides traditional and value-added services to producers to meet the varied needs of different cattle operations.
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Balog is originally from a grain and Hereford cow-calf operation in the Milk River area of southern Alberta. He graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. When Balog graduated, he knew he wanted to do cattle medicine.
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“When I was looking for a job, I went alphabetically through the job listings in Alberta. One of the first ads — ‘B’ — was Bow Valley Veterinary Clinic in Brooks,” Balog says with a chuckle. “It was a mixed animal practice that did lots of cow-calf. I liked the mix of individual animal and herd-level medicine. They had a fantastic in-clinic facility and very good clients.”
Coming from a cow-calf ranch, Balog had always envisioned building a practice that was unique in that sector and tailored to the clients. He was driven by a desire to provide the best service possible for cattle clients. In 2015, Balog had the opportunity to buy the large animal portion of the practice. From there, Bow Valley Livestock Health was created. Today, Bow Valley Livestock Health has grown to a three-vet practice, seeking to hire a fourth.
In the early days, Balog received business mentorship from the previous clinic owners, the Stables, who had sold the large animal part of the practice to further develop Bow Valley Genetics, a bovine genetics and embryo transfer business with WestGen.
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“I also had the support of the clients, who were willing to continue business and to try new services when I offered them,” says Balog.
Otherwise, Balog was on his own to make it all work.
“The business model to start was ‘put your head down and work’,” Balog says. For the first two years, Balog did everything from the bookkeeping to human resources.
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“Then I started hiring on part-time vets and technicians so that I could work on building services and programs for the clients, and protocols for the practice.”
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Balog says it required a lot of internet reading to learn how to manage the logistical and financial side of the business. One of his business goals was to be a top-standard practice for the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association, the governing body of vets and practices in the province. He did so by using the Entrepreneurial Operating System as a guideline for running the practice in a way that would achieve the highest regulatory standards for a large animal clinic.
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“As we grew, I had to let go of roles to allow other people to move into those positions,” Balog says. Now, Balog outsources the accounting work and has a full-time office manager.
Balog began using veterinary technicians a lot to allow the vets to be most effective on farms. From the beginning, Balog made it a priority to focus on providing value-added services while doing technical services. Having technicians on-farm allowed the practice to do a lot of data collection and reporting during routine semen and pregnancy testing.
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In 2020, Balog had the opportunity to purchase the companion animal clinic of the formerly mixed animal practice. Bow Valley Livestock Health shared the same building with the companion animal clinic. Balog saw it as an opportunity to extend his practice management resources and scale up. At the time he bought the companion animal practice, it was operating with a veterinarian shortage. Balog stepped in to cover this shortage. At the same time, another pet hospital in Brooks closed, and at one point, Balog became the only companion animal vet in all of Brooks.
By 2021, Balog saw that demand for his companion animal vet services was beginning to compromise the time he could spend working on the cattle side. At that time Balog was presented with another business opportunity: this time, to partner with Coaldale Veterinary Clinic and Taber Cattle Clinic. That partnership allowed them to build new progams for Bow Valley Livestock Health and for producers, Balog says. For Balog, who isn’t interested in working with a corporation, this partnership offers the value of private local ownership with the sustainability of resource sharing.
One of the greatest challenges Balog faces as a practice owner is attracting associate vets to Brooks. It is a challenge shared by vet practices across Canada, especially in rural areas. In Balog’s experience, people are much more willing to move to a rural area such as Brooks once they have visited the practice. Balog’s wife, Marie-Eve, was also once a newcomer to Brooks. Originally from a predominantly French-speaking area of Quebec, she quickly adapted to speaking English only and has flourished in rural Alberta.
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“Rural areas are undersold. There is this impression that there is no work-life balance and no community,” says Balog. To overcome that, Balog offers externships to local and international students, to show them what kind of mentorship and career opportunity is available.
“We’ve had students come from the United States, Germany and Australia.”
Balog knows that one concern vets have about working in a rural area is being overworked.
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“It is important to make sure that our on-call and regular hours are strategically planned so that people aren’t overworked. You have to structure working hours differently for associates who don’t have the same stake in the business,” says Balog. “It can be challenging to find this balance in the spring.”
To appropriately share being on call, vet practices need to be large enough and employ enough vets. That makes being a rural practice even more challenging and can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for some practices.
Ultimately, this challenge of vet recruitment led Balog to the difficult decision to close the companion animal clinic. Balog did not make the decision lightly. It’s not uncommon for mixed animal practices to have to scale back in rural areas; however, it is usually the large animal component of the practice that is closed, leaving livestock producers with few or no vet options. Balog wanted to ensure that Bow Valley Livestock Health could keep growing to meet the needs of its clients. He saw the need to let go of the companion animal practice.
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Balog is committed to serving the cattle community. He admits that it can be challenging to step away from the business for family time because of how passionate he is about Bow Valley Livestock Health. However, having work-life balance as a core business value and a more sustainable business model helps Balog to make time with his two young kids, Alicia and Liam.
Balog attributes a lot of his collaborative nature and success in the cattle industry to his early experiences growing up in southern Alberta. The cattle operation instilled a love of animals in him, which was later paired with an interest in science. 4-H taught him leadership, and school sports taught him teamwork.
“I played sports as a kid, but I really needed the rest of the team to elevate me to succeed, which also translates to vet medicine,” Balog says.
When he was first taking over the business, Balog relied heavily on free resources such as internet articles and podcasts. In particular, he aspired to have the tools to develop his employees and did a lot of informal continuing education in leadership. He also has sought help from accountants and lawyers to keep building the business over the past seven years. Balog has also received support from other entrepreneurs and vet colleagues along the way.
“For a business to stay sustainable you need to be flexible about the way you deliver services. This includes non-DVM specialists, the addition of consulting services and maintaining a work-life balance,” says Balog.
Balog’s advice to new business owners is to seek out and build relationships with others whom they aspire to be like. He also advises entrepreneurs to think about business ownership with other good establishments. “There are opportunities beyond starting a new individual business. Partnership is sustainability.”
Part of vet medicine’s sustainability in the agricultural industry involves growth. Balog sees the industry changing, which can challenge vets to develop skills and knowledge to deliver non-traditional services.
“Producers should want to push vets to provide better services. Let’s have these conversations openly so that we as vets can grow into the role that producers need.”
Dr. Lexie Reed is a food animal veterinarian at Sunny South Veterinary Services in Lethbridge, Alta.
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