Veterinary School Application Process and Simple Record Keeping Metrics

Summary

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Cattle Chat Podcast Summary

Episode: Veterinary School Application Process and Simple Record Keeping Metrics
Date: February 27, 2026
Host: BCI Cattle Chat Crew (Brad White, Philip, Dustin, Bob, Scott)
Podcast Description: Veterinary professionals from Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Institute discuss timely topics in beef cattle production.

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Overview of the Episode’s Main Theme

This episode of Cattle Chat focuses on two main areas: an in-depth discussion of the veterinary school application process—covering preparation, interview experiences, and ways for students to differentiate themselves—and practical advice for cattle producers on simple, meaningful record keeping metrics, especially for operations that do not already keep extensive records.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Veterinary School Application Process

What Does it Take to Get Into Vet School?

• Essential Steps:
  • Get experience in veterinary clinics (beyond just being a client).
  • Focus on strong grades, especially in science courses.
  • Differentiate yourself: grades and vet clinic hours are the baseline; add research experience or unique perspectives.

Differentiating Yourself as an Applicant

• Quote (Dustin, 05:05):

  "Everybody's got good grades... everybody's probably worked at a vet clinic or shadowed, so you’re not unique. So differentiate yourself. Such as research."

• Unique Backgrounds: Having an ag economics or business background, rather than just animal science, can set you apart.
  • “Maybe you only interact with a mixed animal practitioner or a feedlot consultant... but there’s a lot of different jobs.” – Bob, 08:23

The Importance of Breadth and Depth in Experience

• Breadth: Exposure to companion animal, food animal, and equine medicine (not just racking up hours at one clinic).

• Depth: Substantial engagement and responsibility in those experiences.

• Quote (Scott, 08:55):

  "The veterinary experience is not only depth... but you don’t have the breadth necessarily. I think you want to have experience in both companion animal, food animal, equine. So you’ve seen all of those things."

The Interview Process

• At Kansas State: Small panel interviews (3-4 people); reviews are tailored to ensure applicant/school fit and success potential.
• At Other Schools: Some use larger intimidating panels (e.g., 8-on-1 setups).
• Sample Interview Questions: Sometimes quirky to assess thinking on your feet (e.g., "seven ways to use a straw that’s not as a straw"—Scott, 11:24).
• Key Point: Not all vet schools interview, but for those that do, interviewers want to see fit, readiness, and ability to thrive over time.

Non-Traditional Paths into Vet Med

• About one-third of applicants come from non-vetmed backgrounds, including those who started working elsewhere and switched careers, often with valuable alternative experience and perspectives.

Encouraging Rural/Livestock Veterinary Careers

• Recruitment: Starts as early as high school; most livestock vets end up doing mixed animal work in smaller communities.
• Sustaining Interest: Vet schools can’t always drive rural interest but can stoke it once students arrive; programs like the Food Animal Certificate at K-State help maintain focus.
• Quote (Bob, 13:11):

  "Most livestock veterinarians are actually kind of mixed animal veterinarians... One of the most important things is just to be visible and attract people into rural practice."

Specialization in Vet School

• No formal specializations; all schools must prepare students for a broad exam.
• Some programs have informal emphases based on faculty expertise.

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2. Simple Record Keeping Metrics for Cattle Producers

The Scenario

• Producer with 125 commercial cows, minimal current records, wants a simple way to measure performance/improvement.

Key Metrics Suggested

• Reproductive Measures:

  • % of cows bred

  • % of cows weaning a calf

  • Quote (Bob, 17:25):

    "Percent of cows that get pregnant and kind of weaning weight comparing that over time... in the same herd over time if I’m improving I’m making some gradual improvements in those areas."

• Income Side:

  • Track total pounds or sale weights of calves sold (not just dollars, due to market fluctuation).

• Cost Side:

  • Amount of winter feed bought or produced (major driver of cost).
  • Track winter feed by number of bales or tons used (Philip, 18:12).

• Additional Suggestions:

  • Keep birth dates and weaning weights if possible.
  • Use sale weights from receipts if weaning weights aren’t practical.
  • Use tax receipts and sale documentation as a starting point—no need to add complex systems.
  • Also consider tracking equipment use as it can be a significant, sometimes overlooked, cost.

• Quote (Brad, 21:26):

  "You may not have to add a bunch of record keeping system because you’ve already got some of those things summarized for your taxes."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Funny Cassette Tape Memories (01:36–04:35):
  Crew swaps stories about their most-played cassette tapes from their youth, ranging from Roy D. Mercer prank call tapes to Little Texas, Bellamy Brothers, Metallica, and DIY mixtapes from radio.

  • Scott: “I had a bunch of them and it was Roy D. Mercer out of Oklahoma, the prank call guy out of Tulsa.” (01:36)
  • Philip: “Little Texas. That’s right... in my first truck that played all the time.” (02:23)
  • Bob: “I liked my Bellamy Brothers cassette. I played that a lot... I remember... making my own tape, you know, from the radio.” (03:02–03:14)
  • Dustin: “When I started driving, it was a CD, so cassettes... We had to go probably Alabama or Metallica.” (03:54–04:14)

• Interview Curveball (Scott, 11:24):

  "I got asked... 'seven ways to use a straw that’s not as a straw.' And... that’s a judging how you think on your feet."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:05–04:35 – Team introductions and cassette tape nostalgia
• 04:35–11:55 – Deep dive into the veterinary school application process (requirements, interview, differentiation)
• 11:55–13:11 – Student questions about grad vs. vet school; fostering rural veterinary careers
• 13:11–15:56 – Attracting students to livestock/rural vet med; differences among vet schools
• 15:56–21:26 – Metrics for cattle record keeping—what matters, what’s easy, how to use existing data
• 21:26–End – Using tax receipts for simple record keeping; summary comments

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

The episode is friendly, practical, and insightful, with the hosts blending professional advice with personal stories and gentle humor. Both segments offer actionable information—whether you’re a student eyeing vet school or a rancher aiming to track cattle productivity more mindfully.

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Useful for Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This summary captures the podcast’s key advice for vet school applicants—focus on both the basics and what makes you unique, prepare for interviews that go beyond your GPA, and realize the value in rural and mixed animal practices. For producers, it underscores that even minimal, existing records are enough to begin evaluating herd performance, with practical tips on which basic metrics matter most.

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Transcript

[A]

Hi, welcome to BCI Cattle Chat. I'm Brad White. Happy to have you with us and happy to have our crew here in the studio. Morning, Philip.

[B]

Good morning, guys.

[A]

Morning, Dustin.

[C]

Good morning, Bob.

[D]

Hello, everybody. Scott, good morning.

[A]

Glad you guys are all here on this chilly morning. We've got lots of things to discuss today. One of the topics that we're going to hit is I want to go to vet school. So what does that look like? So we'll talk a little bit about from our perspective, what students need to do to prepare what, what different students are doing here at Kansas State and at other schools across the country, a little bit about that process. And Dustin, I know we've got some questions in that area and then I've got a follow up question for you guys based on a conversation that I want to get your input on. Before we dive into those, I want to remind you, if you have a listener question or something you'd like us to talk about, you can send us an email at bciasu edu or you can reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram or X because we have accounts on all those. If you Google Beef Cattle Institute, you'll find our account page. You can send us a link there. Guys, I wanted to ask you. So kind of came up the other day, I was talking with my son and somebody said something about a cassette. He wasn't aware of what cassettes were, but I know you guys are, and I want to know if you could have the cassette that you played the most. Remember you used to wear them out because you'd rewind, go back and forth. What was the cassette that you played the most times? Scott's already got an answer. I know he's got a favorite and he may still have his cassette.

[D]

I had a bunch of them and it was Roy D. Mercer out of Oklahoma, the prank call guy out of Tulsa. Just like he would just call these people, you know, somebody would call him, like, hey, call this guy. Here's what happened. He'd call him and then they'd record that all. And he'd get all riled up and he'd threaten them physically and stuff. And just the way he talked and everything was, it was pretty funny.

[A]

So that's what you listen to most.

[D]

Yeah, and I got it from my grandpa. He's like, here, you got to listen. And I was like eight, right? Listen. So I started threatening people about how big a boy are you? Big enough to bait a bear trap, that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I probably started some fights in my Own house from doing the same thing, but awesome.

[A]

Philip.

[B]

I'm probably the one that. I don't know why it sticks in my head, but I'm trying to remember the name of the band. Big Texas or Little Texas? Little Texas. That's right.

[A]

So close.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Had one of their cassette tapes. Yeah. In my first truck that played all the time.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Bob, we're. Now, Wait, let me qualify for Bob. Not eight tracks. We're actually talking about cassettes.

[E]

So the new stuff.

[A]

The new stuff.

[E]

Yeah. Okay. Well, I had it. I had a. Yeah, of course. You had a suitcase full of cassette tapes, but, you know,

[B]

it was a cassette kit.

[E]

I did. I like. I liked my Bellamy Brothers cassette. I played that a lot. I had a couple of Chris Ledoux that I played a lot. I had some old rock and roll that I used to play a lot.

[A]

I.

[E]

The other thing and I. The first thing that came to my mind was I remember, like, running my recorder and catching songs on the radio and making my own tape, you know, from the radio.

[A]

So house, where you get 15 for, like, $0.01. And then they would set. Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[E]

Exactly.

[B]

So my boys, before Levi. Levi got a smartphone this last year, but before that, they had an old flip phone. They would turn the recorder on, on the flip phone when the song was on the radio and record the song

[E]

on the Old Times Are New again

[B]

played back on the flip. The audio was awful, but that's.

[A]

That's the way it was on. And you'd get the DJ going into the song.

[D]

It took way more effort to make a mixtape.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean, that was a half a day effort. Right.

[E]

But it was worth it.

[D]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Dustin's been sitting on his. He's excited. It's so.

[C]

I mean, when I started driving, it was a cd, so cassettes.

[A]

Oh, you're making that up that much

[B]

younger than I am. You didn't have a cassette player in your first truck?

[C]

No, I had a. I bought a CD player.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Pioneer. So.

[A]

So.

[C]

But we had to go probably Alabama or Metallica. Yeah, one of the. I remember both of those.

[A]

But I had to add a cassette player to my first truck because it only had AM radio.

[B]

Mine didn't even have a radio. My first truck was an old, stripped down truck that somebody had bought, and I bought it used from them. No power steering, no power windows, no power brakes, and no radio at all.

[A]

So.

[C]

So

[A]

good times. Good times. So the question came up, and we were discussing a little bit. So, Bob, you and I and Scott have been through recently the interview process for not on the interviewee side but on the interviewer side for people getting into vet school. And we've had questions from others. You know, what does it take to get into vet school? If I'm thinking about that, what are some of the things I should be thinking about? And I know Dustin, you work with undergrads and we have ag econ students that interview every year. What are some of the questions that they have?

[C]

So in fact I hate first day of class I had a student introduce herself at GeekCon pre vet and then she came into my office the next day and wanted to talk about research ideas and things like that. And so, you know, we were talking about, I said this is just as an economist who, you know, I go over to vet school every once in a while weekly and I listen. It's like I give you my own personal advice and it's like everybody's got good grades, they probably get into vet school. So you're not unique. I said everybody's probably worked at a vet clinic or shadowed, so you're not unique. So differentiate yourself. I said, such as research, which she said she's actually does some research over here with a couple different labs. So. Well, okay, that's research. You're set yourself apart, maybe do some magic on research is what she wanted to talk to me about. But I also said your degree's a little different than most. Right? You're not an animal science major, you're an ag econ, so you're taking some economic and some business classes. I said that's one unique aspect because everybody I've had in class in the past has actually come on to vet school here at K State and actually they've all been a part of BCI at some point.

[A]

Yeah, we've had several and I agree with the differentiate but the basics are still the basics. So get some vet experience. Make sure that your grades, especially in the science courses are up to par and good. They don't have to be all A's, but you need to get good grades in your science courses. And it's not grade based entry. Right. We don't have just a set criteria that has to be X, but you have to have the academic fortitude to be able to get through vet school. I think the vet experience is a big one. Bob and, and Scott, what are your kind of words of advice if someone's thinking about walking down that path?

[E]

Yeah, I think some of the things you've already said, one of the reasons why we emphasize having Some experience is we're really trying to identify people that are going to thrive in the career. And the career is way past school. So it's the interacting with public. It's problem solving. And we want them to have a really good understanding of what that is.

[A]

You kind of have a realistic perspective because the what you see from a vet on the client. And I interviewed a student this year that their experience with veterinarians was from the client side. So it was all from the client side perspective. From my ranch, here's what the vet does, and I want to do that, but you need to flip it and see it from the veterinarian side because they're going to a lot of different operations and doing many different things than they would just at your operation.

[E]

Right.

[A]

Good, good and bad, which you may or may not enjoy. But you're right. Have a realistic expectation of what's in the profession.

[D]

I think. Go ahead.

[E]

One other that is because of that, a lot of the students, probably two thirds of the students I interview have really been kind of positioning themselves since even high school, you know, that they've gotten a lot of experience at veterinary clinics. They've kind of known that they wanted to go this route. But there's about a third of the people I interview that I actually kind of find interesting. And they came to Vet Med a little bit later. Some of them even started a career and then came to Vet Med. And sometimes that's quite valuable also. So somebody that kind of has more of an ag economics bent, maybe a little more of a business mindset. You know, veterinary medicine is a pretty broad field as far as the types of jobs. Maybe you only interact with, you know, a mixed animal practitioner or a feedlot consultant or a small animal practitioner, but there's a lot of different jobs. And so I like meeting those people that kind of said, you know, I started in engineering or I started someplace else, and then I got to thinking about different career options and ended up at Vet Med. And they often make really good veterinarians also because they kind of came from a different path.

[D]

Scott, I have like four major points. One is meet the prerequisites, because if you don't meet what's listed as a prerequisite, the application's not going to make it through. Stop. One, Two, the veterinary experience is not only depth, so you can put in a ton of hours at the same vet clinic over time. That's depth. But you don't have the breadth necessarily. And I think you want to have experience in both companion animal food Animal, equine. So you've seen all of those things. Next one is all like your personal statements. Everybody says the same thing. I love animals, et cetera, et cetera. So find a way to be unique in a personal statement, and maybe you know that's going to be different for everybody. And I forgot my last point, so that's not helpful.

[A]

You were doing so good. You were rattling them off. I'm like, man, Scott is on fire today. You should have just started with saying you had three points.

[C]

So I got another question. So you're talking about getting ready to apply. So you've applied, you get the. You talk about interview. What is an interview?

[A]

So not all vet schools interview. We interview here at K State. So what we do is we have about 20 minutes to sit down and visit with the student. We go through, and we think the interview is an important part of it, and we review all their materials. So if you're interviewing students, you review all their materials beforehand. You look through all their personal statements, their grades, everything else, and you can formulate some questions to ask them. And you're trying to ascertain, really bidirectionally is this student a good fit for the veterinary school, and is veterinary school a good fit for the student? Which are actually two different things, right? You want to be sure that you get a good match and. And that they're gonna succeed as they go through school. So we spend. And we typically have you get three to four different people on your interview committee that are asking questions. That's similar at some schools across the country. Other schools have gone to different approaches. So our interview process is to try to make sure that we get students that are gonna be a good fit and succeed.

[D]

I interviewed at a different vet school, and it was eight on one, which was intimidating. So it was me and a panel of eight in a small conference room here. It's like Dr. Weiss says, three. Typically three or four. So students and then four people are interviewing. And those people are typically faculty, alumni, practitioners in the field, you know, some combination thereof.

[A]

I interviewed with, and it was more the eight on one scenario. And one. One of the questions was, if we were going to ride on a train to Chicago, what would we talk about? I was like, see, I don't know. I don't have any idea. I don't have anything to say.

[D]

I got asked. I'll never forget it. It was seven ways to use a straw. That's not as a straw. And I mean, that's a judging how you think on your feet, right? And A lot of people would freeze. And I was like, I could come up with.

[A]

So we're asking it. We don't usually ask these type of questions.

[D]

Put that one in your pocket.

[E]

But yeah.

[A]

So, Philip, you work, you work animal science teaching, interact with a lot of pre vet students. What are some of the questions that you hear from them or thoughts that you may think would be that they're wondering about as applying for vet school?

[B]

You know, I don't know. I don't get, frankly, I don't get a whole lot of questions when I teach that undergrad class about vet school. I get a lot of questions about nutrition and grad school, which is different. Grad school and vet school are not the same thing. Get students that are, they're interested in going into consulting nutrition or something along those lines. And so then they know that they need to go to grad school for that. Particularly some of, some of them know that they got to go all the way through for a PhD, some don't. But I'm educating them on like the process of how do you, you don't just apply to grad school. You have to find a major advisor who will be your mentor and teach you. It's more like a mentoring process than it is just taking classes and getting a degree like undergrad is great point.

[A]

Grad school a much more individualistic process than vet school, which is a systematic trying to evaluate and go through. And one of the questions that I get and Scott and Bob, I'll turn to you is we've had discussions about having more and more rural livestock veterinarians. What does the admissions process do nationally or here locally to find those right students or get them into the vet school?

[E]

Well, I think it starts with asking students, are you interested in a career that's, you know, back in a rural community serving livestock? And honestly, most livestock veterinarians are actually kind of mixed animal veterinarians. They, they handle a lot of different species, including, you know, pets, livestock, horses. And so what kind of a, what kind of a young person that. That's an attractive career. Maybe somebody that wants to have a career in a rural community. Maybe somebody that really likes medicine but is kind of turned off by human medicine. So there's honestly a lot of conversations you can have. And so one of the first things is getting the career as a rural veterinarian on the radar screen of kids in high school, kids in undergraduate, young young people in undergraduate, and just having it in front of them as a career. And so one of the things that works really? Well, you talk to young veterinarians either in vet school or in their early career, and they'll often talk about a veterinarian that they worked with and how they liked their lifestyle, they liked how they interacted with their clients, they liked the challenge of their job. And so one of the most important things is just to be visible and attract people into rural practice.

[D]

Yeah, we just. We don't have a lot of input on the, you know, high school and undergraduate age. And so having those students develop that interest before they apply is the main thing. And I don't know how we can drive that here, but that's certainly. I mean, it's the practitioners in their hometowns and local and it's the ag teachers at the high schools, and just having those things as options to build that interest before they even apply. You know, by the time they're juniors or seniors in college, whatever that is,

[A]

follow through on that interest. And I think that's where we have a lot of students that apply that have interest in rural or livestock medicine. And then you get into veterinary school, you have to be able to continue to foster and grow that interest so that you have retention with Will have over the last several years. And I've looked at some of the numbers from our. We've got a food animal certificate program which allows us to kind of track as they go through. And about a quarter to a third of the class is engaged in that program through the four years of veterinary school, meaning that there is some interest, but you have to go somewhere that will support your interest in your interest area. So I would encourage those students, if you have an interest in livestock medicine, to apply.

[C]

So that actually was my next question. I think you hit on it. So if I'm an undergraduate or high school, and each vet school's probably got a base level of knowledge, okay, you're gonna learn about these things. But do they. Do the vet schools, like, specialize. So maybe K states in cattle, since beef cows, whereas somewhere on the very northeast might specialize in kind of.

[A]

There's no formal specialization. It's about the people and the faculty and the distribution of that faculty. So there are vet schools that have stronger in, say, swine or dairy or other species. A lot of them are going to cover all the basics because all graduates have to pass a certification exam when they graduate vet school to get their licensure. And that certification exam is not specialized. It covers all species. So you need to learn all species. But during vet school. And I really like what Scott said earlier, it's not just the depth of your experiences even during vet school, but it's the breadth of your experiences. And that was well put because I think that's what really makes those students do well. So appreciate you guys. Thoughts on on veterinary school and application. I did have another question for you and had had a conversation a few months ago and wanted to run it by you and get your thoughts. So producer has taken over kind of the family operation now is making some of the decisions and has shifted into that role about 125 cows, commercial cows. And one of the questions very broad is how do I they don't keep a lot of records but wants to know how do I know if I'm doing well and improving and what are some of the basics that you would have me look at or track. And I figured each of you would have a different input that maybe could be tracked. And I'll preface it with saying not keeping a lot of records now and no real plans to change and keep a lot of records. So simplistic.

[E]

Yeah. Some of the straightforward things are because reproduction drives the income side so percent of cows that get pregnant and kind of weaning weight comparing that over time. So how many calves do I produce from this herd of 125 cows and what's their average weaning weight. And again there's going to be some real herd to herd differences in what is a good average weaning weight. But in the same herd over time if I'm improving I'm making some gradual improvements in those areas. So the income side is one area where and the records don't have to be particularly that. I mean it's percent of cows that got pregnant and it's percent of cows that wean a calf and what are the weights of those calves.

[A]

I'm shocked that you picked a repro measure as being important.

[E]

And I'm driving home repro is the is the driver of income.

[B]

I think one of the things that I think be fairly easy to keep track of and is a major driver of cost is winter feed. So how much winter feed am I purchasing and how many bales of hay am I going through every winter? Because the more I can extend my grazing season either earlier in the spring, start grazing earlier in the spring or graze longer into the fall and shorten the amount of time that I have to feed hay and supplement in the winter is going to reduce my cost. One of the major cost drivers I'm

[D]

still live calves on the ground. I mean that's the Basics, but it's. You still got to have the denominator. So it's live calves and number of cows. So if you're not going to put in a ton of effort, I think that there's some places where that effort is more meaningful. So one is obviously weaning weights that Bob talked about and percent cow. But if you do like as you're tagging baby calves at birth, you can keep those numbers and you've got calving date that can help you when you go to preg the next year. So those two things are very low impact, very low effort. You keep a book in your pocket while you're doing it and you've at least got some baseline numbers to start with.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And I like your idea of tracking not just how many calves but when they were born. So you could get at how is my calving season distributed which may impact my weaning. Are you okay with just a sale weight at the sale barn or do I have to get weaning? Because I don't know on this operation if they wean and keep them at

[E]

home, the first thing is probably sale weight.

[A]

That's my income.

[E]

Again, income. If I also had weaning weight, that might provide me a little bit different information. But basically no, I want, I'm interested on the income side and I agree with Philip. The cost side is also important. But I need a pretty good income number. So weight of calves sold and that includes what percentage of cows brought me a calf all the way to weaning and how much did they weigh and that type of thing.

[B]

But I'll say I don't want to pay attention to the dollars because that fluctuates a lot with markets. I want to be able to track over time the pounds of calves sold or the pounds of feed purchased, things like that. So that I know on a consistent basis. I'm comparing year after year of what. What's. Am I making progress or am I just flatlining?

[C]

Dustin, you said this is 125 calf. So this, is this a primary income operation or is there, there's got to be an off farm income?

[A]

And this is a, there is an off farm income. But I would, I would phrase this as an important income stream to them.

[C]

So he was talking, Bob was talking about income. Immediately started thinking, well, I would go to cost. And then I was going to say fellow feeding cost just because that is one of the large, as Philip pointed out. And what I might try to track is, you know, if you're, you're either purchased feed which again if you're buying feed you've probably got the receipts or if you're you're doing your own hay, how many bales of hay? If you can just do a quick kind of how much tons and you can put a price to it. But I also assume you're so probably right now you're starting to think about taxes. So I assume you've probably got some of these basic receipts. You know, if you went sold some cats at sale barn, you probably got a sale weight and price. So you got your income, you've probably got some of your feed expenses and other medical or other expenses and so you probably can track a lot of those. But I would go back to probably feed if I could somehow quantify how much feed and then put a price to it.

[A]

Good, great point of you may not have to add a bunch of record keeping system because you've already got some of those things summarized for your taxes. Just use some of that information to get at a and it may be feed cost or it could be at a total cost. The other big line item that sometimes shows up that is easily not accounted for is equipment and equipment use. And sometimes you're attributing equipment to multiple sides of the operation. But good thoughts guys and a great way to start the process of collecting some records in a in a pretty straightforward manner. So appreciate your thoughts on that. If you have a question or a topic you'd like us to discuss, you can send us an email at bciasu. Edu Sam.