Description

We’re hiring – calling all cattle vets!

We are looking to rope in an experienced cattle vet to join our practice. Bovitech Veterinary Services is a large animal practice in Kalgan, Western Australia – 15 minutes east of Albany. 

About the area:

We are based on the beautiful south coastal region of Western Australia. With its mild climate, this is the place to live if you don’t enjoy melting in rectal gloves on a 40°C day. The area boasts lots of beautiful beaches for swimming/diving/fishing, plenty of local wineries/breweries, places to eat out, and great walking/riding trails. Albany is the closest town – it is big enough to have everything you need but small enough for the country town feel, with plenty of social sports and outdoor activities if those tickle your fancy.

Practice details:

99.9% cattle practice – predominantly beef cow/calf herds, with some dairy and feedlot work thrown in the mix. The odd sheep case comes in every now and then. Our clients are typically larger scale commercial operations as hobby farms are not our focus. We are a 2.5-vet practice with a full-time support staff (they actually run the show while us vets flitter around pretending to do all the work). We are a team of ladies but welcome blokes to apply - as long as you can put up with us giggling at our own jokes and keep the toilet seat down.

Our core values:

• Working in a safe, supportive, fun team that looks forward to coming to work each day instead of going through the daily grind. We pride ourselves on looking after our team first and foremost, followed by our patients and clients.
• Good communication and respect of others within our team and client base
• Our clients are well trained – great people, safe yards (with working crushes) and are respectful of our time out of hours. We cull clients on poor temperaments, unsafe facilities or doing a runner on their bills.

The role:

• A full-time position is being offered, but we’re willing to explore a part-time role for the right person
• Roster: 4-day working week (8am-6pm)
• On call: shared between the vets (1 in 3 weekends), but we have very few after-hours calls (and can go weeks without them when it’s not calving season). We're very flexible with swapping on-call days with one another when needed. Bonus paid for after-hours calls.
• Work ute provided that is fully kitted out with all the tools of the trade, plus a lolly stash in the glove box
• Must be confident and competent in our typical case load and be registered with the WA VSB – unfortunately, this isn't a position suitable for a new grad or international vet that can’t be registered in WA without additional accreditation.
• If you can AI (as in make baby cows, not talk to ChatGPT) that’s a bonus but not essential

Typical case load:

• Cattle pregnancy testing: we run several Ibex NXT Lites machines with rectal introducers for all of our preg testing so competence in ultrasound preg testing is a must with manual palpation skills for back up.
• Bull breeding soundness examinations using Lane Pulsator V machines.
• General emergency work (mainly obstetrics and sick animals) – we only provide emergency coverage to our regular clients, which significantly reduces our after-hours load and means we know we’re only going to properties we know are safe. We typically don’t get calls late at night/early hours of the morning as clients are well trained on what is a genuine emergency and know to call early if there are issues. A majority of our clients are within 40km of the practice, so we usually don’t spend long hours on the road every week.
• Basic surgeries and procedural work such as caesareans, calvings, eye ablations, claw amputations, contracted tendons, mass removals/drainage, stag castrations, umbilical hernia repairs, hoof trims, dairy calf disbudding.
• Disease investigations/post-mortem workups (which usually fall under the SDI/TSE subsidy programs).
• Most of our clients are Autumn calving herds, so the start of the year is typically filled with BBSE and calving related calls, mid-year is breeding, and the remainder of the year is filled with preg testing.

Requirements

What we’re looking for:

Competitive salary offered, based on experience and skill set.

• Non-negotiable traits:
  • Enjoys working with livestock
  • Good sense of humour
  • Must be a team player (there are no plebs on our team - everyone shares the workload and helps others when needed)
  • Good time management (we pride ourselves on running on time – so that we’re reliable to clients, and so that we finish on time each day)
  • Respectful of our gear
  • Is clean/tidy and aware of maintaining good biosecurity between farms
  • Holds a current Australian driver’s licence (auto only is ok)
  • Non-smoker
• Negotiable traits:
  • Preferably likes their steak less than well done
  • Is quick with a pun and laughs at our jokes
  • Has baking skills down pat (or at least enjoys eating home baked goods – Milly makes a mean batch of brookies)

How to enquire:

Send us an email (office@bovitech.com.au) or give us a bell on 0499 489 919.