EVER since much of the nation watched, with a mixture of fascination and horror, as James Herriot pushed his arm up the backside of a cow, we have thought that we knew about being a vet.

Since those days there have been a number of programmes devoted to specialists in farm animals, small animals and even exotic animals.

We live in an age of specialists and the veterinary profession is no exception. The vets portrayed always come across as highly intelligent and committed individuals who have the welfare of the animals in their care at heart.

We have kept pigs here at Wilberfoss for as long as I can remember. Throughout that time we have always, very happily, dealt with the same veterinary practice.

The nature of the work has changed. We now try to deal with animal health on a preventative basis, anticipating problems and heading them off. We are not always successful, but there is a lot less calling out the vet to solve a problem we have already got.

The Farm Assurance scheme, of which we are part, demands a quarterly visit from our vet, who checks the animals and makes sure that we are looking after them properly. It all helps to keep problems under control.

One has always felt that the profits made by the vets were broadly in line with other similar professionals such as solicitors or doctors. Like so many systems which have served us so well over the years, this one is beginning to creak a little.

Although there are still a good many motivated individuals who want to become vets, many of them do not want to become the sort of vet who looks after farm animals. They want to look after small animals, in other words pets.

Increasingly people are prepared to pay almost any price to maintain their leisure pursuits, which they see as part of an attractive lifestyle. If that lifestyle includes keeping dogs or cats, then those animals are included in the price that is worth paying. By contrast if the animals are part of a business, the costs of visits are minutely examined, and, no doubt, complained about.

Unsurprisingly, vets are keener to deal with those who do not mind spending the money, and who do not ask for credit, than with those who are more constrained. They probably also consider that the risks of being called out in the middle of the night to a difficult kittening is less than the risk of being called out to a difficult calving.

This week the census figures for the numbers of breeding sows in the UK have been released. They show a decline of about 40 per cent from the, admittedly unsustainable, peak of five years ago.

The problem is that there is no sign that the bottom has been reached. Every week one still hears of farmers who are leaving the pig industry or cutting back drastically. In the face of this reduction in the amount of work that is available, it is perhaps a sensible decision on the part of graduating vets to opt for small animal practice.

It is another example of the way in which farming is put under pressure by its reducing scale. At the moment it is a lot easier to get to see a vet than a doctor. We are a long way away from any risk of a vet not being available when we want one. But it could be that we are nearer to that unhappy situation than we would like.

Updated: 13:02 Tuesday, September 09, 2003