How a $44 Million Ranch Donation Is Reshaping Veterinary Education and the Future of Cattle Medicine

The University of Calgary's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine started as a response to a crisis. Now it's a model for what vet school can actually look like when industry, producers, and academia work together.

By Vet Candy Editorial  |  June 2026  |  Food Animal & Large Animal Practice

If you've ever thought about what it would look like to build a veterinary school from scratch — with real-world training baked in from day one — the University of Calgary's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) is your case study.

And it started, as so many things in agriculture do, with a crisis.

Born Out of BSE — and the Gaps It Exposed

In 2003, a single cow in Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) — mad cow disease. Within days, dozens of countries banned Canadian beef imports. An industry built on exports ground to a halt. The financial and emotional devastation was immediate and lasting.

One of the hard lessons that emerged from the crisis: Canada needed more large-animal veterinarians — specifically ones trained to think beyond the individual patient and at the herd and population level.

UCVM launched in 2005 with that gap squarely in mind. Unlike traditional veterinary schools, it put integrated clinical training with private practices and industry organizations at the center of its model from the start.

"Within a second, your cattle operations or your beef practice is worth nothing," says Dr. Karin Orsel, DVM, PhD, a professor in epidemiology and bovine health management and chair of UCVM's Cattle Health Research Group. "Your producers have no way of moving any animals across borders."

The industry is in a far better place now — and UCVM has been a significant part of that recovery and reinvention.

A $44 Million Gift That Changed Everything

In 2018, UCVM received what is arguably one of the most unusual — and impactful — donations in veterinary education history.

J.C. (Jack) Anderson and his daughter Wynne Chisholm donated their entire working ranch operation to the University of Calgary: 19,000 acres, 1,000 head of cattle, buildings, equipment — altogether valued at $44 million. The resulting W.A. Ranches gave UCVM something almost no other veterinary school has: a fully operational, real-world environment for research, teaching, and community engagement.

The family also funded UCVM's Anderson-Chisholm Chair in Animal Care and Welfare. Their vision was clear — evidence-based research that can actually move the needle on complex problems in animal, human, and environmental health.

"There is so much misinformation in the marketplace that having the university in the position to share evidence-based research is critical," Chisholm said at the ranch's five-year anniversary. "Whether it's the issue of methane from cows or finding a sustainable economic model that works for cattle production... having scientific facts is so important."

What Real-World Training Actually Looks Like

W.A. Ranches isn't a simulation. Students work alongside cattle in actual production settings, alongside real producers navigating real problems. That proximity matters enormously in food animal medicine, where the health of an individual animal is always connected to the economics and viability of an entire operation.

Dr. Michael Jelinski, DVM, a managing partner with Veterinary Agri-Health Services, has worked closely with UCVM for years. He describes the faculty's approach as something the industry has come to rely on.

"The biggest question I always get from UCVM is, 'What do your clients want us to help solve?'" he says. "It's gratifying that they come to us and ask, then work at finding solutions."

That feedback loop — from clinic to classroom and back — is exactly the kind of infrastructure that makes the difference between veterinarians who can handle a textbook scenario and ones who can handle a disease outbreak at a feedlot over the phone on a Sunday morning.

From Reactive to Proactive: Building Herd-Level Systems

One of UCVM's core contributions to the industry has been helping producers and veterinarians develop systems for faster, more coordinated responses to disease events — not just on individual farms, but across regions.

"We have recurring events that people start to pull together and say, 'It's a different disease, but we're dealing with the same kind of thing,'" says Orsel. "We're dealing with controlling a disease that goes beyond the individual farm, and we know how to respond."

That kind of population-level thinking is central to where large-animal and food animal medicine is headed — and it requires veterinarians who are trained to think like epidemiologists as much as clinicians.

Technology Is Changing the Pasture — And Vet School Has to Keep Up

Biosensors tracking animal vitals. GPS locators for rangeland herds. Precision feeding systems. The technology curve in cattle production is steep, and producers are increasingly looking to their veterinarians for guidance on how to integrate new tools into their operations.

"I think what excites me the most is the willingness of the industry to change," Orsel says. "I see a lot of people that understand their responsibility in creating sustainable agriculture."

UCVM's curriculum is built to evolve alongside these shifts — training students not just in medicine, but in how to advise producers on complex decisions involving animal welfare, economics, environmental stewardship, and public health.

The Mental Health Component Nobody Talks About Enough

There's a harder dimension to large-animal practice that doesn't always make it into vet school curricula: the emotional weight of working in agriculture.

UCVM has made professional skills — including mental health — a core part of its training. And Orsel is candid about why.

"On one hand, the producer is your client, and you often have a very good and often personal relationship with that client," she says. "However, you're also the police, right? You're also the person that might have to share bad news that impacts the lives of animals and humans."

That dual role — trusted advisor and regulatory enforcer — is unique to food animal practice. Preparing students for that psychological complexity is part of what makes UCVM's approach distinctive.

Growing the Pipeline: Doubling Class Size and Expanding Facilities

To meet demand, UCVM has doubled its annual undergraduate intake from 50 to 100 students. The new Veterinary Learning Commons is now open on UCalgary's Spy Hill Campus, and additional teaching infrastructure is in development at W.A. Ranches — including a planned state-of-the-art teaching and outreach facility.

The numbers are encouraging on the retention side too: nearly 71% of UCVM graduates stay in Alberta, with many returning to their rural home communities.

"That means that we need specialists in all kinds of areas as well as those veterinarians who are willing to take on a mixed-animal practice," Orsel says. "They can see a cow in the morning, a horse in the afternoon and maybe your dog in the evening."

Why This Matters Beyond Canada

The UCVM model has implications that extend well past Alberta. As large-animal and food animal veterinarians continue to be in short supply globally, the question of how to train them effectively — in real environments, alongside real producers, with real consequences — is one every veterinary school is grappling with.

The answer, if UCVM is any indication, involves philanthropy that's aligned with mission, partnerships that are built on mutual accountability, and a curriculum that treats the farm as a classroom.

Not every school will get a 19,000-acre donation. But the philosophy behind what W.A. Ranches enabled is worth paying attention to.

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Original story: Practice in the Pasture — University of Calgary

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: University of Calgary UCVM

W.A. Ranches: About W.A. Ranches at UCVM