Dr. Berwyn (Bud) J. Cadman of Ridgeland - 1985

Dr.  Berwyn (Bud) J. Cadman of Ridgeland –                WVMA President 1985

Bud J. Cadman, DVM

  Photo:  Courtesy of Dr. Bud Cadman

       It is with fond memories that I reflect on the opportunity I had to serve on the WVMA Executive Board for a period of seven consecutive years. From 1979 through 1983, I served as a delegate to the board from District 8, representing the 18 counties of NW Wisconsin.  Then, in 1984, I served as president-elect, under Dr. Lawrence “Ike” Davis, my term was in 1985, and in 1986 I served as past-president assisting Dr. Ed Lindner in his term. In that period of time, Bill O’Rourke DVM, who was also a licensed mortician, was the WVMA Executive Secretary and our office was in the basement of the Joyce Funeral Home on West Washington Avenue, just off the square in Madison. We held many meetings in the basement of the funeral home in those years.

        In the early 1980’s, many members were asking the WVMA to consider changing both the month and location of the annual meeting. For a number of years, the annual meeting was held at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee and scheduled during the month of January. The veterinarians from the upper regions of the state asked for the annual meeting to be held at different locations throughout the state, and many members were also requesting that we chose a month that was more conducive to travel. During “Ike” Davis’s term, the executive board decided to move the 1985 Annual Meeting to the LaCrosse Convention Center, and that meeting would be scheduled in October.  Because of this change, I oversaw a shortened term of nine months (Jan – Oct) and my predecessor, Dr. Ed Lindner, took the leadership at that time.

       One of the memorable issues that the WVMA dealt with during my term as president was the location of the state’s Regional Animal Health Laboratory in Barron. The new Wisconsin Veterinary School had accepted 80 students for the first class in the fall of 1983. This class was now in their second year, and would spend portions of their last two years at the Ambulatory Clinic at UW River Falls. In order to enhance their training, it was proposed to move the Regional Laboratory from Barron to River Falls. The issue became very contested, in both our association and the political circles of the state. The Jerome Food Company of Barron used the laboratory heavily, had funded some of the diagnostic equipment, and was opposed to any changes in the location of the laboratory.   A freshman state legislator, Mary Hubler, representing Wisconsin’s 75^th Assembly District, led the campaign to keep the laboratory in Barron. After considerable wrangling, a bill passed both chambers, and was signed into law by Governor Tony Earl that declared a Regional Animal Health Laboratory would be located in Barron, WI.

      Toward the end of my term, Dr. O’Rourke announced his plans to resign his position with the WVMA. We announced the position and began the interview process with a number of candidates. Our selection was Leslie Grendahl who went on to serve in that position for the next 21 years.

        During the 46 plus years that I have been associated with the WVMA, there have been few major transitions in our membership. In the late 1960’s, there were very few women who were members and attended meetings.   In my graduating class of 1967, there we only two of the 64 graduates who were female.   This was about the same male to female ratio as our membership and attendees at our meetings. Also the majority of our membership at that time listed their affiliation to a practice that was primarily a mixed, or large animal practice. One final interesting observation – in those years, in the meeting rooms, most tables were set up with a pitcher of water, several glasses and ash trays for the smokers. The ash trays in the meeting rooms have certainly become thing of the past. 

Personal information

      I was raised in Evansville, Wisconsin, near Madison. Two veterinarians from Evansville, brothers Drs. Ed and Howard Krueger were certainly my mentors when I was young. Upon graduation from high school in 1961, I spent two years in pre-vet at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and then transferred to the veterinary school at Iowa State. After graduating in 1967, I worked for Dr. Bob Sartori in Sun Prairie for two years. I got my feet underneath me a little there before I came up to the Ridgeland area to help a classmate, Dr. Charles Howe. I told Chuck that I would practice nine months to, get him through one winter, and then I'd be moving on. As so often happens things changed, and I'm still here. I married a gal from the area here whose family has a dairy farm. My wife, Janelle, and I have three daughters in college now and a young son, age 9, at home with us.

WVMA

       I followed Lawrence Davis, better known as "Ike" Davis, from Oconomowoc, certainly a man that I had a tremendous respect for. It was great privilege to be working with Ike. It was enjoyable at executive board meetings to have that sort of contact with a person doing small animal work, which is so different from the work we were doing day in and day out. He was a man with a lot of wit and a lot of vision.

Changing the annual meeting

      The year I became president, we changed our annual meeting from January meeting to October. I remember we had been stuck, according to some of the people on the executive board, at the Pfister in Milwaukee. I recall Dr. Bob Steinkraus coming to a meeting and saying, "You know, January is the dumbest month of the year to have an annual meeting," and he went on to say, "There's other places besides the Ptister." At that time, we changed to an October annual meeting, and it was with that change we ended up with a nine month year, switching during my term.

       I was in charge of three executive board meetings. They were giving me the raspberries about being the only president to be "impeached." Although I don't like to think of it as an impeachment, I did preside over a shortened term. The WVMA Executive Board voted for annual meeting in October. Our 1985 annual meeting was in La Crosse. I would expect that most past presidents really enjoyed their term. It certainly was an opportunity to meet and work with people that were just a joy to be around.

        During my term, there were a few issues that were a little divisive. The veterinary school construction was already started. (I came on the executive board in 1980 and served a four-year term in that capacity. I was then elected to the position of president-elect; so I had a total of seven years on the board.)

Veterinary school issue

        One of these divisive issues was fueled by a national report which had recently been published. I seem to recall that it was the "Little" report, (Arthur Little). I believe it was done by a firm in the East. This report projected a surplus of veterinarians which would "flood" the market and result in a reduced need for further graduates. At this same time, Wisconsin was building a veterinary school with the strong backing of our executive secretary, Dr. O'Rourke.

       Also during this same time period, there were some surveys of practicing veterinarians in Wisconsin that indicated there was about 50 percent support for the new school. There was also a very vocal group who opposed this new school. Since it was a given that we were going to have a veterinary school in Madison, many of us felt it in our best interest to support it as we best could, and I think time has borne out that it was a worthwhile project. We attempted to tone down some of its harsh critics, encouraging all to make the best of a situation that we were not going to reverse, and a situation that had many very positive implications.

       I remember a Northwest VMA meeting when we invited Dr. Easterday to address our group. I was really disappointed in the way some of our members handled themselves at that time. Like every other controversial issue, we had some members that felt strongly about the new school on both ends of the spectrum. It was some of the critics who were very vocal and in my opinion, rather unprofessional. My admiration went out for Dr. Easterday and the way he handled himself. He did not become visibly ruffled, and was diplomatic about the whole issue. I really thought he did an excellent job.

Barron Lab

      We had a situation going on with the Barron Animal Health Lab at the same time. There was pressure to move the lab to River Falls and combine it with the new Large Animal Ambulatory Clinic which was part of the new veterinary school. At that time, it was in my own self-interest to have the lab stay in Barron, 16 miles north of our practice. Also, our Northwest VMA voted to encourage that the lab remain in Barron.

      When I went to WVMA Executive Board meetings, I had to bite my tongue a bit and remain neutral. Dr. Easterday encouraged the executive board to support a move to include the lab with the new clinic's satellite. After some consideration, the WVMA Executive Board voted to remain neutral on the issue.

Also key to this entire issue, we had a young state representative, Mary Hubler of Rice Lake. She ended up taking this issue on, and was able to get a statute written in Wisconsin State Law that declared "there will be a state diagnostic facility in Barron," period. It ensured the Wisconsin Regional Lab's continued presence in Barron. Mary Hubler went around to the back door on this matter and got the support she needed. We have a large turkey production and processing industry in Barron, Jerome Foods. They also threw immense support into this struggle to keep the lab located in Barron. Needless to say, we are pleased that the lab remained where it is, and our practice, and clients are well served by it.

Replacing Dr. O'Rourke

       Another rather significant issue surfaced during my tenure in office, and that was finding a replacement for Dr. O'Rourke as executive secretary. Bill indicated that he was at his last year at the helm, and we should do some looking for a replacement.  During my term as past-president we did the interviewing that resulted in the selection of Leslie Grendahl as our new person in this position.

Executive board meeting

       I also vividly recall the last executive board meeting that I presided over in La Crosse at the annual meeting. Normally, we could work our way through the business at hand and adjourn by four or five o'clock. However, at this particular meeting, we ran into some differences of opinion, primarily a struggle over personality differences, and the meeting dragged on until almost 7:30 before we were finally able to get it adjourned. This particular meeting was at the Raddison Hotel, and during this marathon meeting, I vaguely remember hearing some distant sirens, but in the heat of our debate, we paid little attention to the distraction. We later found out there was a fire in one of the elevators of the hotel, and they had evacuated people from most of the facility, but we continued our meeting unaware of the problems at hand.

Annual meeting

       It was procedure at this time, that during the annual state meetings, we would have a Saturday noon business luncheon which was usually well attended. There would also be a large banquet on Saturday evening. This was a function that Bill O'Rourke strongly supported and felt it was an important part of the meeting, not only for the members, but also for their spouses. Some members felt it was a bit stuffy and unnecessary. During the 1985 meeting the AVMA President, Dr. Delano Proctor of Kentucky, was a guest of honor and addressed our members during the banquet. Our entertainment was the La Crosse Boys Choir. One of the choir members was a friend of our family, and their presentation seemed to be very much appreciated. I may be overstating the importance and significance of the annual meeting, but I think that many members appreciated this time together with fellow practitioners and their families. We certainly have many good memories of these meetings.

  

WVMA committees

       The committees today are better structured and more functional. I give a good bit of credit to Dr. Larry Mahr, who decided to make it a point to have these committees function more actively and give a little more direction. Larry set about the task of working with the committees more closely than most previous presidents, and I feel he was very successful in involving a larger percent of our members, using their input and help.

Travelling to meetings

       It is quite a way to travel for some of the meetings, but I also found my involvement very

rewarding and enjoyable. My wife, Janelle, and our girls would often plan our time off around the meetings, and many of these trips turned into family trips which I certainly enjoyed, and I think the family did, too. I got a lot more out of the WVMA than they got out of me. Many times I came back from these meetings with my batteries recharged.

      I was also fortunate to have many good committee members who went to bat for me when I was unable to attend meetings. I think particularly of the Legislative Committee with people like Drs. Larry Smith, Howard Krueger, and Bob Sartori. This committee, along with the Insurance Committee of that time, were very active groups which placed heavy time demands on their members.

       More recently we have had another WVMA President from this area, Dr. Rene Carlson or Chetek. She did an excellent job during her term, and was not only the first gal to head up our association, but was also instrumental in making some good constructive changes in the manner in which we were able to get things done.

President-elect term

       During my term as president-elect, I made it to eight or nine of the district meetings throughout the state. At that time, the president-elect also served as the alternative delegate to the AVMA. Dr. Marion Szatalowicz was the first delegate and served a long and successful tenure in that office. The 1984 AVMA Convention was in New Orleans, and that served as the summer vacation for the Cadmans that year. I think there was some real value in the policy of having the president-elect serve as the alternate delegate. It certainly gave a number of us an opportunity in a manner we probably never would have experienced without that policy.

WVMA Insurance Program

      The WVMA Insurance Program was a very important part of our association during my

involvement. We had many WVMA members, some out-of-state members, who continued to maintain their membership solely to take part in our insurance program. The Zimdars Agency out of Madison were the people who administered it, and throughout the course of the program, we had a few different companies doing the underwriting.

      I remember one meeting when it was announced that the disability portion of the program had again turned a profit with very few claims turned in. John Zimdars was shaking his head and commented, "I don't know if veterinarians are really that healthy, or if they are just doing what they enjoy doing and are not looking for a reason to stay home." Dr. Ike Davis answered, "Maybe most of us aren't sharp enough to know when we were so sick we should stay home."

Veterinary practice

        We certainly have seen an evolution in dairy practice in the 30 years that I have been back in Wisconsin. When I came up to the area, the majority of our time was spent on what is now referred to as a fire engine practice. We would go from one farm to another to look at one sick animal, or a group of sick animals. On some days we would visit 25 or more different farms, often spending less than 30 minutes on a farm. We did very little preventative, or herd production work. Now we are working on far less farms, most of them having larger herds. In the thirty years I have been in Ridgeland, more than half our original clients have sold out and retired or sought other work.

       I find it difficult to see the number of vacant farms in our practice area that, less than one generation ago, were the homes of farm families that derived their entire income off these 80 to 120 acre parcels of land. We have certainly lost a beautiful way of life that I doubt we will ever

see again.

       As a practicing large animal veterinarian, I prefer working in the present times. Because of the numerous small farms that were present when I started, we had very busy evenings, early mornings, and weekends. It was not unusual to have a string of three or four emergency calls waiting for you on a busy night. Our emergency work made up a fair amount of our practice. This occurred during hours we would have preferred to spend with our family. Now, with the emphasis of our work on production medicine, we spend the majority of our working day on prescheduled herd work, and the emergencies, although some still exist, are at a minimum.

       We do not have any real large dairies in our practice; we have one dairy with slightly over 300 cows, another at 250, and maybe 12 to 15 farms milking between 100 and 200 cows. At the present time, we still have a number of clients that are milking 30 to 50 animals, but when these people quit milking, the farm will not likely be sold to another individual who will continue to operate it as a dairy. At the same time, we have a fairly significant number of farms that are contemplating a rather significant expansion. It will be interesting to see where it all shakes out. I still foresee the need of well qualified dairy practitioners in this area for the next several years.