Large Animal Technician Option

A Need For Someone Skilled With Large Animals

The large animal technician option will provide an education and experience enabling graduates to work with large animals such as cattle, sheep, and swine in the areas of basic nutrition, health care, animal husbandry, animal handling, and herd management. This program would supply desperately needed skilled assistants to veterinarians and large livestock operations. However, it is important to note that this is not a Vet Tech program. No small animal work will be taught and no national accreditation is necessary.

Getting It All...

The primary objective of the Large Animal Technician Option within the Agriculture program would be to graduate students with the necessary skills to be employed in large livestock operations and as skilled assistants to veterinarians. Graduates will be trained as entry-level technicians that perform basic animal health care and nutrition, such as ration formulation; calculating rations for cattle, swine, sheep; proper techniques for vaccination and immunization; and animal handling. The technician will also be trained in large animal anatomy, exploration of common large animal diseases, care for large animal injuries, and basic artificial insemination practices.

Favorable Opportunities

Veterinarians are in need of assistants to help with large animal health care delivery and on the large-scale livestock operations, particularly in remote areas of South Dakota where one veterinarian has to cover a wide service region. South Dakota Department of Labor statistics indicate a favorable future employment projection. The national CareerInfoNet shows a 16% job opening growth for animal caretakers/vet assistants over the next eight years.

Individuals pursuing this option will have many job possibilities including employment in ag businesses, selling animal care products and in animal nutrition. South Dakota’s CareerInfo website also lists ag occupations as one of the top 50 occupations with the most openings.

Recommended Background Courses

Although not required, the following courses would be beneficial to this course of study prior to attending Lake Area Technical Institute: Ag Courses, Biology, Anatomy, Science, Computer, English.