Cattle

Before Custom Livestock Solutions, there was Saddle Creek Farm: a swath of land in Perry, Georgia, characterized by five generations of agriculture, a place where grandchildren are gifted cows for their second birthdays. It was a tradition Jody Strickland, mother of CLS founder Dr. Tyson Strickland, DVM, underwent as a child, and it’s a custom she’s kept going strong.

Ten years ago this month, Tyson and Anna Strickland walked down the aisle. A week later, he walked across the stage to accept his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. By the time May 2016 ended, he was a husband, a veterinarian and a business owner, plowing ahead on not much more than ambition and prayer. Starting a large animal-only vet clinic, fresh out of school? People told him he was crazy. But a decade later, Dr. Tyson Strickland, DVM, is a husband, father, veterinaria

Both Iron Pin Ranch and CLS turn 10 this year, and both the Harvins and Strickland say they’ve learned a lot from one another in this first decade together.

Rarely a week goes by that the Custom Livestock Solutions phone isn’t ringing with calls for a vet to please come out and see downed cows, bulls, or calves. Because bovines can go down for a number of reasons, and the longer cattle are down, the more detrimental a case can become, the CLS team considers these emergency cases.

Part of keeping show cattle in tip-top shape includes making sure they’re moving fluidly, without pain or stiffness. Though medications to address this exist, some show barns are turning to a less conventional method of show calf maintenance — veterinary spinal manipulation, commonly referred to in human medicine as chiropractics.