By DEBORAH BEHRENDS
Illinois Correspondent SANDWICH, Ill. — He may be planning to major in pre-veterinary medicine and minor in leadership studies, but 18-year-old Robert Munson could probably teach some of those minor classes now.
The 2007 Sandwich High School graduate served his FFA chapter as sentinel, vice president and president during his senior year. As if that didn’t keep him busy enough through high school, he competed in rodeos and served with the National High School Rodeo Assoc., recently finishing his term as student president.
“Not to brag or anything, but we always have one of the top five chapters in the state every year. I was one of the top 10 chapter presidents in the state of Illinois. There’s never a dull moment,” Munson said, with a chuckle.
“We do live on a small farm. We don’t have any cropland, just horses and a few cattle that we use to practice roping,” he added.
The son of David and Linda Munson, he and his sister, Jaclyn, both participated in the rodeo. She’s a senior at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, studying to be an optometrist. When he leaves for school, he’ll be headed to Kansas State University.
“I’ve grown up with horses. I was about five when my family started going on trail rides together. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, we went to a junior rodeo at the state fair. I thought it looked like fun, so my parents agreed I could give it a try,” he said.
“My sister and I both took a liking to it. We stayed with the junior association through eighth grade, and then moved on to the high school association.”
Munson has competed in both calf roping and team roping. For team competition, he said it’s better to have one partner whose style of roping you know. He said he had only two partners while in high school – one from Grand Ridge, Ill., and the other from Galesburg, Ill. – both a fair distance from Sandwich.
Although it doesn’t look nearly as dangerous as bronc or bull riding, Munson said injuries are possible in any event.
“I’ve been fortunate that I have only had one serious injury while participating in rodeos,” he said. “I almost cut my thumb off when it got sucked in between my rope and the saddle horn while I was team roping.
“I was practicing heeling (as part of a roping team) and ended up requiring surgery, three pins put in and was out for eight weeks.
This accident happened one week before my high school state finals my sophomore year, so with my hand in a big cast, I was unable to rope.
“Then, after those eight weeks were finished, the surgery was unsuccessful and I needed another procedure that put in two more pins, and another eight-week waiting period. But it finally healed and I was left with only a minor scar and nearly full movement,” Munson said.
He said there is an association for college-age cowboys and cowgirls, and “many kids choose to go that route.” Munson, however, said he’s going to “stick to the books and get my education so I can rodeo after college,” adding if you’re good enough, you can become a professional.
“My education is pretty important to me. I feel with a degree in veterinary medicine, I can still be with the animals,” he said. He noted there’s a real shortage of large animal veterinarians.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006-07 edition, the job outlook for veterinarians is good. In fact, employment of veterinarians is expected to increase as fast as the average for all occupations over the 2004-14 projection period.
“New graduates continue to be attracted to companion-animal medicine because they prefer to deal with pets and to live and work near heavily populated areas,” the report stated.
The outlook for large-animal practitioners is different, though. “The number of jobs for large-animal veterinarians is likely to grow more slowly than that for veterinarians in private practice who care for companion animals,” the report stated.
“Nevertheless, job prospects may be better for veterinarians who specialize in farm animals than for companion-animal practitioners because of low earnings in the former specialty and because many veterinarians do not want to work in rural or isolated areas.”
Statistics from the American Veterinary Medical Association show that of the 68.2 percent of first-year veterinary graduates in 2004 who went into private clinical practice, 2.5 percent entered into a large animal exclusive practice, while 40.4 percent entered into a small animal exclusive practice. Only 1.9 percent of those first-year veterinary graduates chose to practice in the public or corporate sector.
“Once I’m done with school, maybe I can come back to this area to reduce the shortage,” Munson said.
This farm news was published in the Aug. 22, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
