Dr. John C. Dahl of Madison – 1989

Dr. John C. Dahl of Madison – WVMA President 1989

     Dr. Dahl was the only WVMA member to receive the

Veterinarian of the Year Award twice, in 1964 and in 1992.

  Photo:  Courtesy of Dean Emeritus Barney Easterday

       I had not served on the executive board, but received a phone call from Ike Davis who was a past-president and had the task of recruiting people to run for office, and I knew Ike.  He graduated from Minnesota in1957 and I knew him well there.  He was a very outgoing and persuasive fellow and told me what a grand time I would have, how much fun it would be to be president of the WVMA and would guarantee that I would become president because all the people he had nominated so far had succeeded to the presidency. That did come to be and I became the second president of the new “era.”

I followed Larry Mahr, who was the first president post the O’Rourke era.  The association was changing very markedly.

       I ‘ve been consistent when I say the most important person in building the strength of the WVMA today was Larry Mahr.  Larry really believed in the committee structure and any tasks assigned to a committee he would never usurp, either through his office as the president, or through any motions or actions coming from the executive board.  He would refer it back to the committee, so that made committee activity meaningful.  Larry was absolutely faithful to that.  Now that was very different than my nature.  My nature was that “if committees of 20 deliberate plenty and committees of 10 act now and then it takes a committee of one to get anything done!”

       I avoided the committee route most of the time, but watching the success of organization that Larry had engendered, I followed and did the same thing.  I believe that has been followed by every president  since.  Dr. Bill O’Rourke, of course, had done an enormous service to the profession but, in any instance, when one has been in office for as long as Bill, the organization really becomes very personal and “theirs,” they like to run it that way.  We saw the same thing with the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and Harold Amstutz, who was Executive Director for years and found it hard to give up.   They were part of the history and they think they know what’s best for the organization.  In fact, we have to be careful, and we should keep reminding ourselves that we don’t want a lot of strength placed in the hands of the executive director and that we have to be consistent in supporting our committees.

     There were not a lot of changes.  The major change, of course, had taken place with the retirement of Bill and the appointment of Leslie Grendahl, who was the executive director.   I thought I couldn’t  improve on Larry Mahr’s structure so I just followed his precedence. *

Personal information

        I graduated from Minnesota in 1956 and through good luck more than planning, I ended up in Clintonville, Wisconsin where the veterinarian in the practice was leaving. He didn't see any future for large animal practice in the Clintonville area, and he was going to Monroe, Louisiana, to start a small animal practice. I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time or, more so, my brother was in the right place at the light time being a dairy farmer in the Marion area, he advised me of the opportunity.

       I was able to take that practice on, which was extreme good fortune. The other fellow, frankly, was just not fond of a lot of work, and he was primarily involved in deriving his income from the TB and brucellosis programs. Those were phasing down some, so he thought it was time to get out.

I perhaps, mistakenly, put an ad in the newspaper that said that I would take calls any time of the day or night, and so my first practice months were heavy at night. That was before we had two-way radios. It was a case of your wife calling ahead to the next client where she thought you would be to give him the message that you should go on to another call. After about six or seven months, and the practice was simply much more than I could do myself. I got in touch with John Williamson, who was in a small animal practice in Cleveland. He had a dairy background, and asked him if he'd like to take an opportunity to come back to where the cows were! Then there were the two of us. And that was all within less than one year of graduation! There was just no end to the work that was to be done.

       Four or five years later, Pete Overhauser, who was also a classmate came over from Berlin and joined the practice. We remained a three-person practice for 10 or 12 years.

       My interest early was with milk quality and mastitis control. By 1964 or 1965 we had kind of a split to the extent that we worked out of the same facilities, but I looked after my income and they looked after theirs. I was into quite a bit of consulting for the Dairy Equipment Company in Madison which manufactured the Bou-Matic milking systems. In 1971, I accepted a full-time appointment with the Dairy Equipment Company and moved to Madison remaining with that company until 1983.

       In 1984 I came into the UW-SVM as the first Director of the Teaching Hospitals. It was at that time I became more involved with the WVMA.

WVMA

       I had not served on the executive board, but received a phone call from Ike Davis who was a past president and had the task of recruiting people to run for office, and I knew Ike. He graduated from Minnesota in 1957 and I knew him well there. He was a very outgoing and persuasive fellow and told me what a grand time I would have, how much fun it would be to be president of the WVMA and would I let my name stand? I said, "Well, sure I would." He said he was a king-maker and he would guarantee that I would become president because all the people he had nominated so far had succeeded to the presidency. That did come to be and I became the second president of the "new era." I followed Larry Mahr, who was the first president post the O'Rouke era. The association was changing very markedly.

I've been consistent when I say the most important person in building the strength of the WVMA today was Larry Mahr. Larry really believed in the committee structure and any tasks assigned to a committee he would never usurp, either through his office as the president, or through any motions or actions coming from the executive board. He would refer it back to the committee, so that made committee activity meaningful. Larry was absolutely faithful to that. Now that was very different than my nature. My nature was that "if committees of 20 deliberate plenty and committees of 10 act now and then, it takes a committee of one to get anything done!" I avoided the committee route most of the time, but watching the success of the organization that Larry had engendered, I followed and did the same thing. I believe that has been followed by every president since. Dr. O'Rourke, of course, had done an enormous service to the profession but, in any instance, when one has been in office for as long as Bill, the organization really becomes very personal and "theirs," they like to run it that way. We saw the same thing with the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and Harold Amstutz, who was Executive Director for years and found it hard to give up. They were part of the history and they think they know what's best for the organization. In fact, we have to be careful, and we should keep reminding ourselves that we don't want a lot of strength placed in the hands of the executive director and that we have to be consistent in supporting our committees.

During his presidency

     There were not a lot of changes. The major change, of course, had taken place with the

retirement of Bill and the appointment of Leslie Grendahl, who was the executive director. I thought I couldn't improve on Larry Mahr's structure so I just followed his precedence!

Challenges

      There was a lot of activity because of the committees. I was encouraged by Dean Easterday to literally give about as much time to the WVMA as it required. Being in Madison, I was able to give a substantial amount of time and attended almost all of the local meetings at one time or another, some of them on more than one occasion. I also attended a lot of the committee meetings as an ex-officio member.

      We were just getting into concerns about the adulteration of milk and dairy beef, that was on the horizon.

      The Legislative Committee had to do with the political aspects, primarily with the state legislature. This was something of a challenge because the chairman of that committee essentially directed the relationship with our lobbyists, and there wasn't good representation of the committee or philosophies or desires of the executive board. That was a bit of a problem.

       I put in motion a review of the effectiveness of our legislative program which, ultimately, when Art Daun followed as president, resulted in a change of our lobbyist and the appointment of our present legislative counsel, former Governor Maltin Schrieber.

This was a significant step forward. Martin Schrieber has been very effective for us. We also did away with the one-on-one activities that existed before and now everything went through the Legislative Committee to the executive board for approval. We then had a better handle on what we were doing, which is critically important in legislation. You just can't make any marked mistakes or you're going to live with them a long, long time. While that didn't happen in my term, it got started.

Major concerns

       One of the concerns was our medical insurance program. We went through two or three different companies trying to hold on to providing the medical insurance for our members. In part because the program previously had been pretty successful but then, of course, in part because we thought it was the glue that held the organization together. There was some merit in thinking that because certainly it's true for the AVMA.

        There are a good many members that would not be members of the AVMA it they didn't have their medical insurance through that association. Finding a company that would cover our insurance needs was becoming a problem and ultimately we did have to put our tail between our legs and go to the AVMA and seek to gain participation in their program. That wasn't easy because of bad politics, I think on the part of the AVMA. They faulted the WVMA for going alone for so long and they were not too pleasant to deal with when we tried to gain participation. That sticks with me as a major point because here was a large association, a strong association, and we got short shrift from the AVMA. We were made to be unduly humble, which went against my grain, of course! But that's now straightened out.

Interestingly enough, it came about in part because we were adding staff and had full time people at three and four times the compensation that Dr. O'Rourke had ever enjoyed! We were confronted with a dues raise and so losing the medical insurance to the AVMA, and as well being concerned about the increase in dues, we went ahead anyway. We simply couldn’t operate as we were then structured without the additional income. However after losing the insurance program it made virtually no difference to our membership! We dropped very few, if any, members. And the organization has since continued to grow.

School of Veterinary Medicine

        In 1983, the School of Veterinary Medicine started up. That was not much a problem for me as president or an officer of the WVMA, but it was much more of a problem for me as the Director of the Teaching Hospitals at the School of Veterinary Medicine. There were a lot of antagonisms directed towards the School. Many practitioners thought we were already turning out too many veterinarians, and certainly in the Madison area and near vicinity, the School was looked on as a threat. We had to live through those times. We had to link arms with the school and the association, but it was done with a fair bit of antagonisms and really some faults probably on both sides.

       When we look at the growth of the WVMA, whether it's member services or anything else, I believe far and away the reason for the growth in the WVMA membership is the School of Veterinary Medicine. Generally, we graduate 80 students each year, anywhere from 75-90 percent of those students sign WVMA application forms for that first year, and the renewal rate is at least 50 percent on an ongoing basis! We should be realistic when we talk about growth and the success of the WVMA because it's easily documented that the growth comes primarily from new graduates from this school.

Controversies

       There were problems with the state government especially with the Secretary of Agriculture, Howard Richards. The secretary was a swine farmer and an able person, but he really wasn't very knowledgeable about the veterinary profession. He would always relate an unhappy experience with his swine herd. We perhaps were a little aggressive in approaching the secretary which didn't help. We repeatedly met with him and this was helpful because, over time, we arrived at a pretty good relationship and we found that he as a Secretary of Agriculture and we as professionals for health care in the state had the same goals. Some of the personal things that had separated us for quite a time were resolved and we worked successfully with him. Of course we didn't succeed nearly as well with the next appointment of Secretary of Agriculture, Alan Tracy, and that's a whole other store that was a problem primarily to people that followed me.

National veterinary issues

       The restriction on drugs that was available to the profession and the lack of any formal

agreement of extra label drug use was a concern. It persisted as a concern, indeed persists even to this time, as to what is prohibited and what extra label use is left to the opinion of the veterinarian. This is an area that remains a possible hazard to us because too many veterinarians, in my opinion, are exploiting the extra label drug use; they are not following the guidelines or the mandate of FDA as they should do. That's dangerous for the profession.

      The numbers of veterinarians that all of the schools are graduating has only intensified. In fact, the AVMA and the American Animal Hospital Association are pressing for programs which would reduce the numbers of graduates and that really can't be done unless we reduce the numbers of schools of veterinary medicine. No schools are stepping forward asking for closure! This is difficult and veterinary medicine is changing so rapidly, and has been for the last 10 years, that it's hard really to discern what the future for the profession is going to be. I think it is clear that the food animal programs are diminishing in the schools. That is a threat and has been on the agenda of the AVMA as well as the WVMA. There are only so many resources and we have more and more resources being devoted to the companion animal (including the equine), and were falling farther and farther behind in terms of food animal. This, personally, is a major concern to me.

       All the schools are experiencing an enrollment of 70 percent women and 30 percent men in any given class. This has a profound effect on the profession. In part, because while many of the women do intend full-time practice, there is a value shift, understandably, when the childbearing years are coming to an end. These folks want to start a family. With children, many of these women may want to work on a limited time basis. There are many doing so, and very ably, but there is a question as to whether or not the compensation and the extra benefits really meet the capabilities that these people have. Now that's a problem.

        We have many women who have graduated from our food animal programs and have gone into dairy practice and are doing exceedingly well. But the odds are that the numbers of women that go into food animal will be smaller than the numbers of men that go into food animal, or at least persist full time in their practice. That's another aspect affecting the resources serving the food animal programs. However, changing agriculture may mandate that we don't need as many, that's another side of the coin: we don't know.

WVMA Executive Board

      The board met five times a year. We usually had two meetings out of Madison and three

meetings in Madison and I believe that persists to this time. Stevens Point was one point for a meeting site and then Eau Claire became another center for meetings. This brought some fairness to our veterinarians in the northwest side of the state, but most of the committee meetings are held in Madison and that is quite a burden for our membership that are farther away.

Annual meeting

      The annual meeting that was held in October 1989 was the last meeting in Milwaukee. It was at the Marc Plaza (formerly the Schroeder, now the Hilton). That was kind of a good time for me, having attended the meetings at the Pfister for all those many years prior to Dr. O'Rourke's retirement and then really concluding my time in the president's chair at the last meeting in Milwaukee. With my history going back to 1956, it was kind of appropriate I think that the last meeting that I would be in the president's chair was a unique sort of experience. We didn't have a keynote speaker for the opening sessions. Nor did we have a banquet per se as had been the custom for all those years before. I presided at the annual meeting and we had the awards and so forth. This was a noon meal. It was not an evening meal, and the evenings were given over to the dance and that sort of thing but no sit-down dinner accompanied.

UW-SVM, 1983 compared to 1998

       I came to the SVM from involvement in an industry where we had pretty good control. When I came into the school as the Director of the VMTH, we were in the midst of strong argument: In the local area and in the northwest. The school was looked upon as establishing an unfair fee schedule, and that we were low-balling on those things which were the bread and butter in practice. Our fees were much too high in those procedures which could only be done in this sort of environment, some of the orthopedic work and so forth. The first task given to me, I hadn't been on board for more than a week, was to structure a fee schedule and then address the Dane County Association on the restructuring of the fee schedule so their concerns would be met.

       I selected about a dozen common procedures, vaccinations, castrations, basic things, a CBCs and diagnostics, and I said "I'll handle this just like we would a bar of steel." When you get a bar of steel you have to cut it off, then you've got to put it on a lathe and turn it down, and maybe there's some welding involved, but you do that using time studies and material costs for every step of the way. With the help of an excellent veterinary technician, those fees were structured for me, and we had the time and material on every procedure, the numbers of gauze pads used, etc. We costed those all out at a fair return. That brought all of our fees up two and three times of what was being charged.

       I went to the meeting, and it was a hostile. I've got to give great credit to Dr. Tass Dueland who was doing his level best to improve the relationships. He was serving as chairman of the Department of Surgical Sciences and was attempting to develop a rapport with the Dane County VMA, and it was just downright nasty; there was such hostility. When I got to stand and speak, I had some advantage, because I knew quite a few of the people. Nor was I long enough with the school to be identified as part of the school. When I showed them the way we were structuring our fees and the level of the fees that would be charged, almost immediately there was some lessening of the hostility.

        We proceeded on our pricing practices to this day, every procedure is on the computer with the time and materials used. The tech time is charged for in all of those procedures. Any time there's an increase in the cost of materials, it's reflected back into the computer and those fees are restructured. This helped, but it took a long time. For the first couple of years, every meeting we went to we were assaulted by complaints about the school. Many of these related to fees, but there also was an expectation that it was a teaching hospital and a case referred there often were those that could not pay for the service of the local practitioners. The case would be referred to the school, with the thought that the school could provide free service, and that isn't possible. The state of Wisconsin runs very tight audits, tax payers ought to be glad to know they're extremely tight. When the auditors come in they look at all of your procedures, they audit the billing against the case record. If there are procedures in the case record that are not reflected in the bill, they consider that state money has been given away! You have to have a paper trail on every single transaction. You must audit 10 percent of all your medical records against the bills. You do have the prerogative of issuing an allowance for a fee, but there must be some justification for why you did that. For example, if a clinician wants to take a couple of more x-rays for teaching purposes, the procedures must be on the record, but you can write an allowance, so the state knows the reason for your doing so.

      Over time, relationships are much much better, but this also is in part due to the fact that more than 30-40 percent of the practitioners in the state are Wisconsin graduates. They tend to look fairly favorably on their alma mater. It's comfortable now. Most of the difficulties are simply that the load on the teaching caseload is so great that people have to wait for an appointment. That's an aggravation, but I have not heard the quality of the service and the fees as being contentious any more.

Final thoughts

       I think that Ike Davis was entirely correct when he told me how much I would enjoy the

experience of serving in the WVMA. I certainly did, and I would recommend to anybody who can take these offices. I serve now as the Wisconsin delegate to the AVMA and it's an interesting experience, but not nearly as satisfying as being a WVMA officer. In the course of serving, certainly as a president, you can have an agenda and get some part of that agenda enacted, and so you can feel that your years have had some influence. In the AVMA, with that huge bureaucracy, individual action brings very little. It's infuriating to see the bureaucrats who have long since passed a real interest or knowledge of veterinary medicine, trying to take the profession down a particular path, not knowing where they've been, where they are, or where they're going!

      I've taken it upon myself to personally make them aware of my presence by being obnoxious and, secondly, by putting forth programs and insisting that we get to the floor of the House of Delegates. The House of Delegates is where the power should lie. I think we have some small measure of success there because now when I stand I can see the pall come over the residing officer's face. I'm now known, although they may not know my name, they know that that's "the cow guy" and that he's going to be making a noise. So, all in all, I don't begrudge a moment of time that I've given to organize veterinary medicine and I certainly intend to persist in maintaining my interest in the profession.