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The Grey Bruce Farmers Week committee is delighted to announce that Dr. Hannah Jansen is the recipient of the 2023 GBFW scholarship award.
Dr. Jansen grew up on a swine and cash crop farm outside of Seaforth. Horses, goats, backyard chickens, veal, a few beef cattle, and sheep rounded out her farmyard companions.
She loved growing up on a farm and getting to spend time caring for these animals.
Hannah did her undergraduate degree in Nursing Science, working for three years as a Registered Nurse in Tennessee and Ontario.
She loved the medicine and the people but missed working with the animals and the agriculture community.
Hannah decided to bridge the gap between her interests and set her sights on veterinary school.
After taking some required courses, working at the University of Guelph as a research technician, and taking some odd jobs as a farm hand, she was elated to be accepted to the veterinary program.
Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week has been a main stay for the agricultural industry in Grey and Bruce Counties since 1966.
The featured commodities have evolved as the area’s agricultural focus has changed, but the mandate to provide information to producers and agribusiness has remained firm.
Producers have supported our programming for 57 years, so the committee would like to give back to the community.
With that in mind, the Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Committee established an annual $1,000 Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Prize in conjunction with the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), to recognize new veterinarians entering food animal practices serving producers in Grey and Bruce Counties.
This award recognizes the individual’s past accomplishments, but also encourages their future contributions, and commitment to our rural communities.
The annual prize of $1,000 has been awarded since 2010.
Dr. Jansen, of the OVC Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Class of 2023, enjoyed her University of Guelph Convocation and Veterinary Oath Ceremony earlier this June.
As an aspiring vet she never considered working with anything other than livestock in the agriculture community. She believed that she would work full time as a swine vet.
Hannah was swayed to broaden her scope of large animal medicine while job shadowing throughout second and third year at Blyth Veterinary Services.
She enjoyed the herd and individual medicine that they provided to the other large animal species including cattle, small ruminants, and horses.
Dr. Jansen is currently working four days a week at South West Ontario Veterinary Services, pursing her dreams of working as a swine veterinarian working across Ontario, including farms in both Grey and Bruce counties.
She is also working one day a week and sharing the on-call schedule at Blyth Vets, working predominantly in Huron and Bruce counties as a large animal veterinarian.
At both practices she has enjoyed meeting the farmers and getting to know the various operations.
As she starts her career, it is her hope to be a team member helping farmers to be economically successful and striving to provide the animals with the most humane care.
She has a special interest in applying a one health approach to the veterinary care she provides due to her history working in the human health care field, and her experiences on the farm.
This approach uses a holistic approach to medicine by incorporating a human, animal, and environmental health perspective.
Dr. Jansen would like to thank the farmers who have already welcomed her onto their farms. She's looking forward to meeting more.
The Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Committee congratulates Dr. Hannah Jansen, and wishes her all the best in her future endeavours!
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source: media release, GBFW
