Treat the visit as a systems review
An annual herd or flock visit earns its keep when it reviews the management system, not just the animals that happen to look off. Your vet sees your place once a year; the questions that matter are the ones that turn that visit into next year's plan. Arrive with records in hand — treatments given, losses, lambing or calving results, feed changes — because honest numbers make the conversation specific instead of generic.
Vaccinations and local disease risk
Ask whether your current vaccination programme still matches the disease risks in your area. Risks shift: a neighbour's outbreak, a new enterprise on the farm, showing animals or buying in replacements all change the picture. Review which animals actually got covered last round, what the timing should be relative to breeding and lambing or calving, and whether any group — youngstock, breeding males, new arrivals — is falling through the gaps between rounds.
Parasites: ask what the evidence says
Bring the year's fecal egg count results and ask whether the parasite plan is working or quietly building resistance. This is the moment to review which products were used, whether dosing equipment is accurate, how quarantine treatments for bought-in animals are handled, and whether targeted approaches — treating the animals that need it rather than everything on a schedule — fit your setup. Ask also about the pasture side: grazing rotations, mixed-species grazing and rest periods that reduce worm pressure before any product is reached for.
Condition, minerals and breeding
Walk the herd or flock with your vet and ask for a condition verdict across groups, not individuals: are the breeding females going into mating at the right score, and did last year's feeding do what it cost? Forage and soil vary, so ask whether your mineral supplementation matches your ground, and whether any recurring problem — weak lambs, poor conception, retained cleansings — hints at a gap. Breeding soundness of males is cheap to check annually and expensive to skip: one failing ram or bull rewrites a season.
Biosecurity and the emergency plan
Agree the rules for new arrivals before you buy: how long they isolate, what they get tested or treated for, and where they stand while they wait. Ask what your vet wants you to do at two in the morning for the emergencies your species actually gets — a bloated goat, a prolapsing ewe, a down cow — and what should be in the farm medicine cupboard, within your vet's prescribing rules. Finally, ask what records the practice wishes you kept; keeping your herd and flock health records, visit notes and treatment dates organised in KinsLe's Pet Passport means next year's review starts from evidence, not memory.