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Our Dairy Veterinarians:
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Click on name or scroll below
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Dr. Ron C. McFee
Ron was born
in Chilliwack in 1946 and spent his early years on the family dairy farm on
Sumas Prairie. Ron attended Junior and Senior High
school in Chilliwack, graduating in 1964.
He received his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from U.B.C. in
1968 and a D.V.M. from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 1972.
Ron and his
wife Jackie were married in 1968.
They went to Williams Lake for a year and a half after Vet college and in
1973 Dr. Harry Brewster gave them the opportunity to take over his practice
in, hometown, Chilliwack. Ron worked out of the house office as a single
practitioner until 1981. Greenbelt Veterinary Services Ltd. was formed in
1982 with Chris Byra as partner.
Enjoying
individual animal medicine the most, Ron is at home on the “front line” of
farm veterinary practice. For the past several years he has worked on a
“reduced work-week” basis for the practice he helped to build.
Ron and
Jackie have three married children and a grandson and enjoy living on their
Rosedale acreage.
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Dr. Chris Byra
 Following
a liberal education that included a BA (UBC) and a Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine from the University of Saskatchewan in 1981, Chris joined McFee
Veterinary Clinic and with Ron formed GVS in 1982. His primary interests
have always been dairy and swine production and health, later to include
farm financial matters. A dairy business club inspired Chris to expand his
knowledge of farm business management through a MBA from the University of
Guelph in 2001. Chris continues to provide veterinary service, production
and financial consultation to GVS dairy clients. Most recently, DairySMART
Management, a subsidiary of GVS, offers management services, health,
production and farm management training courses, succession, and expansion
plans utilizing the latest techniques to provide information for financial
and production decision making on the farm.
Chris has participated as a speaker and writer for many dairy extension
activities. In the 1990’s he participated with private and international
development dairy projects in Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico and
Russia. He continues to be active in provincial and national veterinary
associations. Throughout the years his veterinary career has taken a
number of different paths, all in agriculture, and continues to be
motivating and fulfilling for him.
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Dr.
Dick Clegg
Dick was born in 1950 and
raised on the family dairy farm in Chilliwack. After obtaining a BSc from
UBC, he went on to graduate from the Western College of Veterinary
Medicine in 1978. He began practicing at Sannich, BC and returned to
Chilliwack in 1980. After a number of years at Cheam View Veterinary
Hospital, and a year on his own, Dick joined Greenbelt Veterinary Services
in 1986. Primarily involved in dairy medicine, he also has experience with
horses, goats and sheep. Dick has a special interest in cattle lameness.
Dick also has an avid
interest in the preservation of barn owls and holds a banding license. He
sets up and monitors owl boxes around the valley. His community
involvement includes counseling first time youth offenders in the
Restorative Justice Program. While Dick is known for his ‘Nerves of
Steel’, his fine wood turnings reveal ‘Hands of Silk’. Dick and his wife,
Daphne, have three sons: Dan, Steve and Eric. The family hobby farms with
a variety of colourful cows and critters.
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Dr. Dan
McDermid
 Dan
was born in Chilliwack in 1962 into a dairy farming family. He graduated
from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Saskatoon, in 1986 and
achieved the gold medal for academic performance. He spent his first
year in practice in Wetaskiwin, Alberta where he worked on both small
and farm animals. The next year, Dan jumped at the opportunity to come
back to Chilliwack to work for Greenbelt Veterinary Services. He has
been a partner at Greenbelt since 1988 and plans to be for many more
years.
Dan's veterinary
interests are varied: he has special training in mastitis management -
specifically, milker and milking machine evaluation and mastitis
microbiology. His other hobbies include bag piping, photography and
astronomy. He has been married for 15 years to his lovely wife, Angie,
and has two children, Scott, 14 and Emily, 12.
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Dr. John
Dick
 John
grew up in Chilliwack on a dairy farm. John graduated in 1998 from the
Western College of Veterinary Medicine and received the Faculty Gold
Medal for outstanding academic achievement. Upon graduation,
John started work with Greenbelt Veterinary Services.
His prime
interests are dairy production and preventative medicine.
Special veterinary interests include calf raising, pharmacology and
preventative vaccine protocols. John is a member of the American
Association of Bovine Practitioners and frequently attends continuing
education conferences. His non-veterinary interests include
hiking.
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Dr. Josh Waddington
 After a youth (mis)spent
exploring a number of work experiences, Josh graduated with
distinction from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in
Saskatoon in 1990, and since that time has been involved exclusively
with farm and food animal practice. After an initial two very cold
years in practice in Saskatchewan, Josh came
west to join GVS as an associate and eventual partner in 1992.
Throughout his time in veterinary practice Josh's focus has been on
dairy and swine health and production management.
In the late 1990's Josh and his family took an extended sabbatical
from veterinary practice to explore a little of this world via
sailboat. At the beginning of 2000, after some fantastic travel
experiences, he returned to work part-time at GVS, balancing the week
with a half-time veterinary position with the Food Safety and Quality
Branch of the provincial Ministry of Agriculture. This blend of jobs
allows him to satisfy his curiosity in the area of human-animal
interactions. This encompasses infectious agents transmissible from
animals to man, food safety and quality issues, and on-farm quality
assurance programming, all of which he believes to be a valuable
practice asset in this age of scrutiny regarding farming and farm
practices.
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Dr. Jason
Ricka
 Greenbelt
Veterinary Services is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Jason
Ricka to our team. Jason is no stranger to the dairy community
here in the Fraser Valley where his brother, Mark, and father, John,
still actively farm. After graduating from the Animal Science
program at UBC in 1999, Jason achieved his Doctorate of Veterinary
Medicine degree from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in
2003.
For
the past three years Jason has been sharpening his skills in a
progressive dairy practice in Embrun just outside of Ottawa, Ontario.
Jason married a veterinary classmate, Carli, who will be practicing at
Sardis Animal Hospital. Dr. Ricka has been looking forward to
coming back to the Valley to be close to the home farm and to practice
near friends and family.
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GREENBELT VETERINARY SERVICES LTD.
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