Rothbury 01669 838 288 or Belford 01669 838 284 info@bsfh.co.uk

Students

Black Sheep Farm Health offer dedicated farm animal EMS for penultimate and final year students. Students must have a keen interest in production animal health and an ambition to work with farm animals. The placement offers students a rare chance to get involved with progressive beef and sheep work, although the practice caters for all farm animal species.

The placements run in two-week blocks from mid-August to the end of May. Due to the seasonal nature of our work, we are unable to offer placements in June and July.  Students are welcome to contact us as far ahead as they would like to book placements. 

The exact work will vary seasonally but the externship will allow students to get experience of:

  • Call-outs: sick cow work, calving, lambing etc. with dedicated farm vets at our busiest times of year.
  • Routine work: pregnancy diagnosis (manual and ultrasound scanning), blood sampling for cattle health schemes, routine fertility visits, bull and ram pre-breeding assessments.
  • Laboratory skills: worm egg counts, blood smears, semen morphology evaluation and assisting in disease outbreak investigations.
  • In practice seminars, tutorials and literature reviews.
  • Writing articles for a monthly newsletter and assisting with farmer meetings.

To arrange placement please email claire.neillans@bsfh.co.uk for an application form.

There are several accommodation options available for reasonable rates, although a car is required to get to and from the surgery.