Retired local veterinarian remembers his ‘hay’days
Dr. Robert Borne, a retired Crawford County veterinarian, fondly shared his herd health program logs as well as pictures and articles about his days on local farms. (Photo by Correne Martin)
By Correne Martin
Farmers in southwest Wisconsin tend to be a breed all their own. They’re the hard-working, easygoing kind who enjoy their animals, the countryside and a casual conversation of hogwash.
Retired large animal veterinarian Dr. Robert Borne, more fondly known by his former clients as “Doc,” knows farming families in the region all too well.
He grew up in Prairie du Chien and, like his two older brothers, was known locally for his sporting talents, even playing basketball at UW-Platteville.
“To me, life’s gotta be a challenge. Whether I was playing sports or not, I liked to lead people. I always wanted to be at the top of my class,” Borne said.
Those goals were no different as he decided which career path to follow. In high school, Doc spent some time working at the slaughterhouse in Prairie du Chien. He considered becoming a beef veterinarian, but later settled on large animals in general. He remembers such a specialty being rare at the time, as so many young vets were more interested in working with small animals.
“Back then, people had 50 cats on one farm,” he said. “Vets used to do rabies and distemper shots on the farm.”
After a semester at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture at Platteville. Then, since there was no vet school in Wisconsin, he attended and graduated from Kansas State. He also held a post in the veterinary corps during his time in the service.
Out of college, Borne said he was the only student out of 70 in his class who started practice alone. “When I left vet school, I only wanted to be a vet—nothing else,” he stated.
Doc came back to Prairie du Chien in 1962, and bought out Dr. Check’s practice (in a garage across from the Lutheran Church). After five years, he went to Boscobel and spent three years there before building a log cabin office with living quarters in Seneca in 1968. Around 1972, he built a home in another part of Seneca and moved his office to a building across from the tavern. In 1992, he left Seneca and returned to Prairie du Chien, where he owned and operated Little Critters until his retirement in 2002.
Throughout his career, he was a vet to all animals, but mostly large animals, and he spent countless days on the farm.
For the majority of his time as a vet in Seneca, Doc made farm visits from there to De Soto on Highway 56, through Soldiers Grove and down to Mount Zion. He also dabbled into Iowa, as far away as Waterville, to care for pigs and beef cattle.
“My motto was: ‘If I can’t make you money, don’t bother me,’” he recalled.
Based off that principle, Doc started a herd health program with his farmers around 1987. He had about 45 herds on it at any given time. The idea was that he’d visit each herd once a month and examine the cows in four groups: any that had calved, any with slight discharge, any that weren’t coming in heat after 30 days, and any that were pregnant. The intent was to keep the herds alive, healthy and increasingly productive.
“Back then, 40 cows was a lot. Now, several hundred is the norm and 20,000-30,000 pounds of milk a year [is regularly achieved],” he noted. “Plus, there wasn’t much distance between farms. I used to drive 200 miles and make 15-16 calls in a day.”
A big problem among cows in the ‘80s and ‘90s was mastitis. But Doc said concerns about such inflammation are low nowadays because milking machines are much cleaner and stanchions are lined with sand, which causes less infection.
“I had guys coming in my door, mostly from Crawford County, who were interested in my herd health program,” he said, humbly. “I could help them drop their calving interval from 15 months down to 12 months, which meant an extra calf in a five-year period. That’s how the money is made.”
Doc certainly wanted the farmers in his program to fare well, and it seems they did just that.
“I enjoyed the people I got to know. I drank coffee and had breakfast and lunch with those people,” he said, noting that he remains in contact with many of his clients. “Their financial successes were the reason I was around.”
Naturally, times have changed. But when it comes to the relationship between a farmer and his veterinarian, Doc believes they are still a very important team.
