Each summer, the College of Veterinary Medicine offers a series of veterinary internships in the swine, beef and poultry industries.
The internships give the students a chance to spend the summer collaborating with leading veterinarians in the specific field on any number of areas. For the swine internship, students are immersed daily in modern swine production and health.
That immersion confirmed to Chris Sievers that swine medicine was the field he wanted to practice in.
“After my SVIP internship, I knew becoming a swine veterinarian was for me,” Sievers said. “I got to see an industry that was very data driven, close knit and had excellent people to work with.”
The internship reinforced a passion he had for animal agriculture dating back to his childhood growing up on a diversified family farming operation that included farrow to finish commercial pigs and feedlot cattle.
Today, Sievers is part of Swine Vet Center (SVC), a 17-doctor practice in Iowa and Minnesota. There he is a respected contributor to swine medicine who is known to be adept at recognizing and responding rapidly to changes in the Midwest and U.S. livestock production.
It’s a job that he has held since graduating from Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
“When Chris graduated from veterinary school, we had no doubt on our desire to hire him and make him part of the Swine Vet Center team,” said Dr. Brad Leuwerke.
While at SVC Sievers has held many roles including the director of research, a member of the internal leadership team and a partner. He does this all while maintaining a full load of client relationships and responsibilities.
In those relationships, Sievers uses web-based and digital messaging tools in his day-to-day interactions for everything from health papers, utilizing aps for mortality reporting and barn attributes such as water and feed intake.
And it’s not just the clients and producers that he stays in touch with. Sievers is active in the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV). In 2021 he received that organization’s Young Swine Veterinarian of the Year Award and he is currently the AASV Influenza Committee President-Elect. He is also a frequent conference speaker.
“I have been fortunate to work very closely and collaboratively with all the veterinarians at SVC to continue bringing insight and knowledge to the industry,” he said. “We work to push each other within the clinic to be the best veterinarians in the industry for our clients.”
But in the end, it is the opportunity to work with, and in, the swine industry that keeps Sievers coming back to the office day after day.
“First and foremost the producers I work with are my favorite part of being a swine veterinarian,” he said. “Growing up in agriculture, I believe I am able to understand the importance of everyone involved from the caretakers to the owners.
“I am extremely fortunate to work alongside producers that strive to improve every day. It’s great that I get to work and learn right alongside them.”
