Twelve North Carolina veterinary practices were recently awarded grants to help support their large animal practice. The Large Animal Healthcare Enhancement Grant is a $130,000 recurring fund created by the N.C. General Assembly in 2023 and is administered by the N.C. Ag Finance Authority.
This funding opportunity is available to veterinarians who practice in one of the 70 North Carolina counties with a population of 100,000 or fewer and that spend 30% or more of their patient care involved in large animal veterinary care.
“North Carolina’s animal agriculture industry represents nearly 75% of total cash receipts, so we need the large animal vets who work to ensure the health of our livestock industry,” Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said. “We have a shortage of large animal vets in North Carolina, and we are awarding these grants to help encourage more large animal vets in the state.”
Including this most recent group of awards and recipients, around $375,000 has been awarded to 23 veterinarians in the state since the program’s start. A total of $123,500 was awarded to 12 large animal veterinarians in the last grant cycle. They were recognized at the 2026 Got to Be NC Festival in May.
The following practices and veterinarians received grants from the last grant cycle:
- Bethanie Cooper, Wake County
- Farm and Field, Pasquotank County
- Heart Horse Mobile, Wake County
- Jason Smith, Chatham County
- John Parks II, Alamance County
- Lexington Large Animal, Davidson County
- Don Banks, Duplin County
- Nicholas Collier, Iredell County
- Pineview Vet, Columbus County
- Sullivan Vet Services, Lincoln County
- Whiskey River Large Animal Mobile Veterinary Services, Macon County
- Foggy Mountain Mobile Veterinary Services, Haywood County