How far back to count animal hours growing up on farm?

[Cowlover99]

I was wondering how far back I should go with counting experience working on a farm. My family owns a 600 cow dairy that I have been involved with my entire life. I started actually doing chores/actual work around 8 years old. Looking at my payroll/time sheets from over the last 12 years, I've come up with around 29,000 hours. Can I list all of those hours on my application, or is that going too far back?

Also, does having a lot of animal/ farm experience outweigh not having thousands of hours of veterinary experience (I currently only have around 200)?

Thanks!

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[HeldByTheHeal]

I would include anything and everything that you think could help your application; the competition for getting into veterinary school is obviously very high and you want to put forward as solid of a case for yourself as possible. Additionally, the application process itself is inherently lengthy so you might as well be as thorough as possible during it and leave no stone unturned.

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

I was wondering how far back I should go with counting experience working on a farm. My family owns a 600 cow dairy that I have been involved with my entire life. I started actually doing chores/actual work around 8 years old. Looking at my payroll/time sheets from over the last 12 years, I've come up with around 29,000 hours. Can I list all of those hours on my application, or is that going too far back?

Also, does having a lot of animal/ farm experience outweigh not having thousands of hours of veterinary experience (I currently only have around 200)?

Thanks!

For the 1st question, I think you can list them, but I am not sure how seriously vet school would take hours that were done when you were 8. I think a lot of schools say to only list things from HS and onward, but I could be wrong.

To answer the second question, I don't think animal hours outweigh vet hours. Having 29,000 hours on a farm is great but doesn't necessarily show you have knowledge about the veterinary profession like vet hours do. People have been admitted with low/no animal hours but I'm not sure the same can be said for vet hours.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I was wondering how far back I should go with counting experience working on a farm. My family owns a 600 cow dairy that I have been involved with my entire life. I started actually doing chores/actual work around 8 years old. Looking at my payroll/time sheets from over the last 12 years, I've come up with around 29,000 hours. Can I list all of those hours on my application, or is that going too far back?

Going back to when you were 8? Way too far. No adcom is going to take that seriously.

Also, does having a lot of animal/ farm experience outweigh not having thousands of hours of veterinary experience (I currently only have around 200)?

Thanks!

Not really, because veterinary experience is much different than basic animal husbandry. In general, I think including pet ownership or farm work as animal hours is kind of pushing it, although people can and will continue to list it. Not to say that you didn't gain valuable work ethic and it must have been really great to have been able to be involved so much with your animals for such a long time....but I would be careful about overselling that aspect, especially if you are lacking in true veterinary hours. I think such experience would be far better highlighted in your personal statement rather than the meat of the app.

 

[finnickthedog]

I can really only speak to my own experience which is not much considering I only applied to one school.

I did not grow up on a farm, but I did grow up breeding and showing dogs which came with the same question of "Okay, how much of this do I count?". While I went back to when I was 8 and 4 for some of the training/showing, I didn't go back past the age of 12 for actual work.

I also had a low number of veterinary hours the first time I applied (~200) and almost exclusively with a single clinic.

My experience was that in my file review they really loved my animal experience and when I directly asked about whether more veterinary hours would help me they said it couldn't hurt but hadn't been a concern. So I don't know there... probably somewhat dependent on who is looking at your application.

I wouldn't say that animal experience "outweighs" a lack of veterinary experience, but having lots of quality animals hours and a lower, but still okay number of vet hours is probably still a better place to be in than having lower numbers in both categories.

 

[love2hunt]

In an admissions seminar for the school I’m now at, the admissions department suggested only including hours you were directly working with the animals and only when you were the primary caretaker. So I would cut out hours that you would have been fixing fences or storing feed and only include hours that were spent directly working with the cows. That’s probably difficult to do exactly, so I’d take a conservative estimate of how many hours that was on average per day and multiply that number out. You’ll still probably have plenty of hours even with that.

And no, it won’t help offset your low vet hours. You’re applying to be a vet, not a dairy farmer, so they want to know that you have first hand knowledge of the veterinary side of things. However, I think it will look good that you have first hand knowledge of the animal industry from the farmer’s perspective. I’d work that into your essays like @WhtsThFrequency suggested and highlight how that knowledge will help you be an empathetic and understanding vet who knows what it’s like to be the farmer.

 

[Cowlover99]

@WhtsThFrequency Is listing farm work as animal hours on the application really "pushing" it? I feel like it is a lot more involved that general pet ownership (which I am not including on my application). I've spent most of my time directly working w/ cows and calves, and observe them daily for any possible signs of illness. I am very involved in the herd health side of things. I vaccinate cows and calves, give all of the required shots for timed artificial insemination, treat cows w/ IV calcium for milk fever, drench cows with propylene glycol for ketosis and also administer all treatments prescribed by veterinarian.

 

[SkiOtter]

@WhtsThFrequency Is listing farm work as animal hours on the application really "pushing" it? I feel like it is a lot more involved that general pet ownership (which I am not including on my application). I've spent most of my time directly working w/ cows and calves, and observe them daily for any possible signs of illness. I am very involved in the herd health side of things. I vaccinate cows and calves, give all of the required shots for timed artificial insemination, treat cows w/ IV calcium for milk fever, drench cows with propylene glycol for ketosis and also administer all treatments prescribed by veterinarian.

I personally think you’re fine listing it as animal experience tbh and listing all 29,000 hours and including things from before high school (also for things other than your farm work)

 

[Doctor-S]

I just want a picture of a diary cow 'cuz I think cows are cute.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

@WhtsThFrequency Is listing farm work as animal hours on the application really "pushing" it? I feel like it is a lot more involved that general pet ownership (which I am not including on my application). I've spent most of my time directly working w/ cows and calves, and observe them daily for any possible signs of illness. I am very involved in the herd health side of things. I vaccinate cows and calves, give all of the required shots for timed artificial insemination, treat cows w/ IV calcium for milk fever, drench cows with propylene glycol for ketosis and also administer all treatments prescribed by veterinarian.

I would say that counts for more if you were actively involved in the management. By "farm work" I meant things like love2hunt said - feeding, fixing fences, mucking barns, etc. That's the stuff I wouldn't count. Similarly on the companion animal side, I would not count simply owning, feeding, and walking a dog as animal hours. If, however, you were heavily involved in things like agility, service dog work, etc. that would count for more. Sorry I wasn't more clear.