Pillen announces $150,000 incentive for livestock vets to practice in rural Nebraska

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced a new grant program on Monday aimed at attracting livestock veterinarians to practice in rural Nebraska.

The Nebraska Rural Veterinary Grant Program will provide up to 13 new veterinary graduates with $150,000 if they accept a job in rural Nebraska with 80% or more of their practice dedicated to treating “production animals,” or livestock. The awardees must agree to continue practicing in rural Nebraska for eight years.

“We’re running into an extraordinary shortage of food-animal practitioners across the state,” Pillen said at a Monday news conference. “This program addresses the demand and the extraordinary shortfall that we have.”

Katie Thurber, Nebraska’s labor commissioner, said the award selection process will focus on the applicant’s “passion for production animal health, relevant experience, academic success, and commitment to rural Nebraska.” Grants are available for veterinarians who establish a new clinic or join an existing practice.

Pillen, who is himself a veterinarian, has taken an interest in addressing the significant shortage of production animal vets in Nebraska. Last year, he announced the Elite 11 Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which provides 50% tuition coverage for the first two years of undergraduate study in veterinary or animal science for selected students, and 100% coverage for the last two years.

Eleven students – the elite 11 – are then chosen to continue to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree with 100% of the tuition paid. They must practice in Nebraska as a production animal veterinarian for eight years following graduation, or pay back tuition expenses.

Unlike the Elite 11 Program, which requires that applicants be Nebraska residents, the new grant program is open to recent graduates from across the country.

Pillen said rural practices in Nebraska are having a “very difficult time” recruiting recent graduates, particularly as some veterinarians in small counties look toward retirement. He said he hopes the new program, along with the scholarship program, will attract the 10 to 12 veterinarians needed to “keep our heads above water” in rural areas.

“Cattle is king in Nebraska,” Pillen said. “Livestock’s a big deal. We’re responding to a really, really important issue.”