Virginia funds large animal veterinarians as rural shortages persist across the US

Virginia has awarded $890,000 to 7 large animal veterinarians in the second year of a state effort to expand veterinary services in rural communities.¹ The awards follow a September report from the USDA that found shortages of food animal and mixed animal veterinarians have persisted across many rural areas for more than a decade.²

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TRRC) announced the grants November 6, 2026. VDACS funded 4 awards of $110,000 each. TRRC funded 3 awards of $150,000 each in Southern and Southwest Virginia.¹

According to the announcement, the money will go toward hiring veterinarians, purchasing equipment, outfitting mobile veterinary units, and expanding haul-in capacity.¹

Veterinarian shortages that keep coming back

The USDA Economic Research Service report examined counties included in veterinary shortage areas under the federal Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP). Roughly 81% of rural counties were included in a shortage area at least once between 2010 and 2026, compared with 62% of urban counties. The report classified 14% of US counties as persistent shortage counties because each was nominated 9 or more times.²

Designation did not guarantee a veterinarian arrived. Of the shortage areas announced in 2024, 31% were filled and 59% received no applications.²

The report also documented a widening economic gap. Average inflation-adjusted revenue for rural food animal and mixed animal practices fell 22% from 2021 to 2025, while revenue for urban practices of the same type rose 19%. Inflation-adjusted income for rural food animal veterinarians fell 19% from 2017 to 2024. The report cautions that some of the survey subsamples behind the income figures are relatively small.²

With few practicing food animal veterinarians in most labor markets, particularly rural ones, a single retirement can have an outsized impact on veterinary service availability, according to the report.²

What Virginia is trying

Virginia's state veterinarian has identified all areas of the commonwealth as having a shortage of large animal veterinarians.³ In a 2024 Virginia Farm Bureau survey, 52% of the state's livestock producers said they were receiving adequate veterinary care.⁴

A state workgroup that studied the shortage for 2 years recommended grant programs as one response.⁵ VDACS launched its program July 1, 2025. Grants can cover practice establishment or expansion, equipment and supplies, salary support for associate veterinarians or technicians, and student loan repayment.³

"The rural veterinarian shortage is a complex problem with no easy solution," Thach Winslow, DVM, Virginia's large animal veterinary workforce coordinator, said in the announcement.^1,4 Winslow said grants for current practitioners can produce quicker outcomes while the state also works to improve the future pipeline of large animal veterinarians.¹

Other workgroup proposals remain unfinished. A regulatory action to create a pathway for haul-in large animal veterinary establishments was still in executive branch review as of the workgroup's January 2026 final report. The report says the pathway will increase opportunities for licensed veterinary technicians to practice large animal medicine. A budget amendment to fund more seats for Virginia residents at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine failed to pass.⁵

Other approaches to the shortage

Virginia is not alone in trying financial incentives. In November 2025, Wisconsin lawmakers proposed a bipartisan bill that would have offered recent veterinary graduates $25,000 in student loan repayment for each year of practice in a rural county, for up to 4 years. The bill was tabled in the Assembly in February 2026 and failed to pass the following month, according to the Wisconsin Legislature's record.⁶

In December 2025, the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine said a $250,000 USDA grant would back the school's first food animal residency program, which is designed to train educators in food animal medicine.

Other efforts focus on where future veterinarians come from. At Clemson University's Harvey S. Peeler Jr. College of Veterinary Medicine, 6 students from counties in South Carolina's Pee Dee region received scholarships covering tuition and living expenses through a gift focused on educating students from rural areas. "We think it's important that students come from underserved areas because we think they'll return to underserved areas," Steven L. Marks, BVSc, MRCVS, DACVIM, the college's founding dean, told dvm360.

The federal picture

For the 2026 VMLRP cycle, USDA used a record 243 veterinary shortage areas across 46 states, identified for fiscal year 2025.⁷ The program repays student loans for veterinarians who commit to 3 years of service in a designated shortage area. The next application period opens in February 2027, according to the Virginia announcement.¹

In Congress, the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act, reintroduced in March 2025, would end federal taxation of VMLRP awards. Neither the House bill nor the Senate bill has advanced beyond committee referral, according to Congress.gov.^8,9

The Economic Research Service report was prepared in response to USDA's Rural Veterinary Action Plan, which was announced in August 2025.^2,10

References

1. Large animal veterinarians receive grants to expand services in rural Virginia. News release. Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. November 6, 2026. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.morningagclips.com/large-animal-veterinarians-receive-grants-to-expand-services-in-rural-virginia/
2. Genetin B, Davis JC, Grossen G. Food-animal Veterinarians and the Persistence of Rural Shortage Areas. US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service; 2026. Economic Information Bulletin 311. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/115537
3. VDACS Large Animal Veterinary Grant Program. Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/animals-large-animal-veterinary-grant.shtml
4. Mann A. New position aims to close the gap in Virginia's large animal veterinary services. Virginia Tech News. April 23, 2026. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/04/vetmed-new-faculty-winslow.html
5. Virginia Board of Veterinary Medicine. Second and Final Report on Shortage of Large Animal Veterinarians in the Commonwealth (HJR 43, 2024). House Document No. 2. Commonwealth of Virginia; 2026. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2026/HD2
6. Wisconsin Assembly Bill 505, 2025-2026 Legislature, Regular Session (Wis 2025). Accessed November 11, 2026. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2025/proposals/ab505
7. Larkin M. Applications open for federal Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program. American Veterinary Medical Association. January 22, 2026. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.avma.org/news/applications-open-federal-veterinary-medicine-loan-repayment-program
8. Rural Veterinary Workforce Act, HR 2398, 119th Cong (2025). Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2398
9. Rural Veterinary Workforce Act, S 1163, 119th Cong (2025). Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1163
10. USDA expands efforts to strengthen rural food animal veterinary workforce and protect America's food supply. News release. US Department of Agriculture. August 28, 2025. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.usda.gov/node/65546