Dairy Farmer-Female Veterinary Adviser Relationships in New Zealand

Strong relationships between farmers and rural advisors, in particular veterinarians, lead to better implementation of advice and adoption of recommendations. Farmers value evidence-based advice from their veterinarians, but veterinarians are often criticised by farmers for not thinking about the big picture. For veterinarians, strong relationships with farmers can contribute to job satisfaction and retention. However, there is limited research on the key attributes of a successful farmer-rural advisor relationship from the perspective of both farmer and veterinarian. The aims of this project were to identify the key attributes of successful farmer-veterinary advisor relationships from both perspectives, specifically for female veterinarians who are in a paid advisory relationship with a dairy farmer.

A review of the literature revealed that a successful advisory relationship between a dairy farmer and veterinarian had benefits both from management and business perspectives and from a well-being and job satisfaction perspective, for farmers and veterinarians alike. For the farmer, a successful advisory relationship may lead to improvements in management of farm operations, animal health, and profitability. For the veterinary advisor and business, successful advisory relationships may be seen as beneficial for job satisfaction, retention of veterinarians and improved client loyalty.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted separately with seven dairy farmerfemale veterinary advisor pairs, that were self-reported as successful relationships by both parties. Five owners or senior managers of these veterinary businesses were also interviewed. Open-ended questions were asked to understand the positive components of a thriving and flourishing farmer-veterinarian relationship. Thematic analysis was used to identify core themes and sub-themes, commonalities, and differences between the farmers, advisors, and business owners/managers.

Key findings from these interviews:

• Personal connection was highlighted as the most important theme contributing to the successful relationship between the veterinarian and farmer for all interviewees. This connection was created over time by mutual trust and respect, honoured by open and honest communication between the veterinary advisor and farmer, with a genuine understanding of the farmer and their business by the veterinarian.
• Value is provided by the veterinarian to the farmer in the form of support, expertise, growth and development, and accountability. Furthermore this value provision is not all one way; in order for the partnership to thrive, growth and development, and accountability go both ways.
• A strong understanding of personality characteristics (self-awareness) by both the veterinarian and farmer, and awareness of what was needed by the farmer to complement their strengths, was part of the success.
• Veterinary businesses clearly saw the value in supporting their veterinarians to work with farmers as advisors, citing benefits to the veterinary business, the veterinarians, and the farmer clients. The factors that need to be considered for veterinary businesses to be successful encouraging the development of these 2 flourishing advisory relationships are time, support, interpersonal skills, building of trust, monetisation of the work, emotional and personal investment, and gender.

Recommendations:

• Communicate to the veterinary industry the importance of personal connection as the pillar of flourishing advisory relationships. Clearly describe how the value in these partnerships is provided to (and from) the farmer by the advisor.
• Improve the emotional intelligence of veterinarians wanting to work as advisors through training and education.
• Communicate to the veterinary profession the complexity of the advisory role, and the different skillset required by veterinarians that are successful in this space.
• Veterinary businesses need to provide a range of resources to support their veterinarians to develop as advisors including time allocation, a structure to the advisory service but also the flexibility to adapt with each relationship.
• Identify farmer-veterinary advisory relationships that are not flourishing and make recommendations for changes based on the findings from this project.