Farm Animals - Meet the Team

Mike Sandiford - BVSc DBR MRCVS

Mike Sandiford graduated from Bristol University in 1996 where he was one of the vet students followed in the BBC documentary ‘Vets School’. After nine months in Botswana working at a Wildlife Sanctuary, Ostrich Farm and Safari Company he joined the cattle team at the George Vet Group in October 1997. Having spent time developing his clinical skills he again appeared in ‘Vets in Practice’ which followed his progress as a large animal vet. Mike developed a particular interest in Mastitis Investigations and developed the GVG SCC Report to monitor the incidence of ‘New Infections’ using NMR data in order to improve treatment success rates through early intervention. Following an increased involvement in herd fertility he studied for his Diploma in Bovine Reproduction (DBR) at Liverpool University for 2 years graduating with distinction in December ’08. Mike is currently involved in Herd Health Management on several large, high yielding dairies and is available for second opinion referrals. He joined the Partnership in July ’08 and lives in Malmesbury with his wife and three children.

Richard Pearson - BVSc MRCVS

Richard Pearson qualified from Liverpool in 1993 with an interest in cattle and pig medicine. Since then he has developed interests in infectious disease in pigs, bovine reproduction, Johne’s disease, mastitis control, biosecurity and parasite control in both species. He is a director of Vetscore providing pig health reports to pig farmers throughout the South of England via the British Pig Health Scheme and also a reporting vet for NADIS (National Animal Disease Information Service.) Richard joined the partnership of the practice in July 2003.

Fran Baird - BVMS MRCVS

Fran Baird qualified from Glasgow in 1990. He joined the practice in the autumn of that year, becoming a partner in 1997. He has primary responsibility for the pig practice and services a wide variety of clients throughout the South and South-West England, as well as overseas, advising on all aspects of pig production with particular regard to health, welfare and disease. As a dairy farmer’s son, bought up with pedigree Ayrshires, he has a long association with our farm team and retains management input within the cattle team.

Phil Marsh - BVetMed MRCVS

Tom Oxtoby BVSc CertCHP MRCVS

Tom Oxtoby graduated from the University of Bristol in 2000, came to the George Vet Group after 3 years in mixed practice in Mid Wales and became a Cattle Partner in 2011. He works exclusively with farm animals, with dairy cattle comprising approximately 90% of his workload. He has special interests in nutrition and fertility and set up the bull fertility testing service that the George Vet Group provides to its own clients and on a referral basis. He has held farmer training days on foot care, semen handling and storage, downer cows and nutrition. He is a holder of the Royal College Certificate in Cattle Health and Production. Tom is also involved with several large sheep flocks, providing routine health visits, flock health plans and ram fertility testing.
He tries to keep fit by playing football and running half marathons and has the proud distinction of being part the George Vet Group’s 2006 World Woolsack Championship winning team! He lives near Malmesbury with his wife Catherine and two boys Joshua and Fred.

Cathy Morris - BVSc BSc MRCVS

Cathy Morris qualified from Bristol in, and joined the George in 2004, having spent time in large and companion animal practice in the area. She is currently working towards a further qualification in homeopathy, which she uses in conjunction with conventional therapies where appropriate.

Tim Hirst -BVM&S CertCHP MRCVS

Tim Hirst qualified from Edinburgh in 2003, and started work in a mixed practice in Northern Ireland with a baptism of fire seeing all manor of sick cows, calving cows and performing over a hundred cattle and sheep caesareans. After a year of hard work and long hours he joined the Rowe Vet Group, and became part of the George when the two practices merged in January 2007. Tim enjoys all aspects of dairy and beef work and in particular loves large animal surgery. Tim is a holder of the Royal College Certificate in Cattle Health and Production, and is keen to help farmers improve their overall herd health and to run their farms as efficiently as possible. Outside of work Tim has competed nationally and internationally in dinghy racing and last year finished second at the nationals in Cornwall in the RS 800 fleet. He enjoys most country sports, in particular game shooting and hunts his own horse with the Berkeley and Beaufort packs.

Gethin Roberts - BVSc MRCVS

Gethin Roberts was brought up on the family beef and sheep farm in South Wales. After qualifying from the University of Bristol, he joined the George Farm Team in August 2007. Gethin has a keen interest in herd health issues, particularly mastitis control and prevention. Other areas of interest include infectious disease screening and eradication, following the start of our free milk and blood screening programmes in 2008. 

Outside of work he regularly exhibits his Welsh Mountain rams at local shows and sales and would like to start showing the cattle in the near future.

Ed Bailey - BVSc MRCVS

Ed Bailey grew up in Bristol and qualified from Bristol University in 2007. A locum position in mixed practice in Devon was sufficient to convince him that farm work was what he wanted to concentrate on, and has been at The George ever since. Ed runs the practice foot trimming courses, and is also responsible for overseeing the sheep work, coordinating proactive flock health planning. He is qualified to implement DairyCo mastitis control investigations, and mastitis prevention is a particular interest.He has managed to make it out of the South West from time to time and has worked on a dairy farm in New Zealand as part of numerous world travels. Away from work he spends his time cycling, fell running and climbing.

Ian Cardiff - BSc MSc BVMS MRCVS

Before training as a vet Ian was a zookeeper, working mainly with lions, tigers, giraffe and rhino. Inspired by the exotic he decided to return to university and train as a vet. Ian graduated from Glasgow in 2003. He started out in mixed practice in Cornwall, then companion animals in Somerset, before joining The George in early 2009 to concentrate on farm animal species. He lives just outside Bath with his wife and two daughters, where he keeps a (very) small flock of Jacob cross sheep and is involved with providing routine visits, flock management advice and ram fertility checks to some of our sheep clients, as well as routine work, fertility sessions and herd health planning to our cattle clients. He enjoys the variety of work and practical challenges faced by the many aspects of farm veterinary medicine. He also runs the practice’s Organic Farm Discussion Group and is keen to promote the practice’s ever growing smallholders community.

Heather Niman - BVSc MRCVS

Originally from East Cheshire, Heather graduated from Bristol University in 2009, having gained experience of farm practice in Cheshire and Yorkshire, and with a keen interest in farm data; spending time in final year helping to develop the TotalVet software. She joined the George in December of that year and brought the northern weather with her, resulting in us all being snowed in for weeks! Coming from a dairy background, Heather is particularly enthusiastic about lameness in dairy cows and in neonatal medicine so when she’s not TB testing, can often be found locomotion scoring or cuddling a sick calf or lamb. Since joining the George she has a fast growing interest in beef and sheep work, as well as the practice’s alpaca work. Outside of work she has a keen interest in veterinary politics and enjoys most country pursuits, currently concentrating on training her chocolate Labrador puppy Clova for the field.

Phil Stoakes

Phil Stoakes joined the practice in August 2011 after graduating from The University of Bristol. He has always had a keen interest in agriculture, being raised on his family’s beef and sheep farm in Oxfordshire. He has a passion for all aspects of farm animal veterinary work and is keen to use any reason or excuse to get out into the farm environment!  He is looking forward to expanding his skills in herd health and also the more unusual farm species such as alpacas, game birds and poultry.
Outside of work Phil’s hobbies include going to the races and long distance running and his running routes are certainly helping him to explore the local area of Malmesbury thoroughly! Being a country boy he also loves getting involved in all aspects of country life.

Andy Bramall

Andy Bramall was brought up on a dairy farm in Cheshire; the family now rear dairy heifers in which Andy has been actively involved.  Having always wanted to work in farm animal practice, after qualifying from Liverpool University in 2011, Andy joined The George in August of that year. He enjoys all aspects of farm practice but has a particular interest in dairy cattle stemming from his upbringing in Cheshire.  Outside of work Andy enjoys spending his time climbing, cycling and shooting. 

Katherine Hart

Kat joined the George Vet Group in September 2011 after studying at Bristol, where she intercalated in microbiology gaining a 2.1. She was raised in the cow shed of her family farm, Actonelm Holsteins over in Monmouth. She is an active member of Olveston YFC and is the Gloucestershire stock judging chairman.
At the National Stockman of the year competition she was placed 5th and led the team to 2nd at the Winter Fair. Kat is a member of the West Midland Holstein Young Breeders, was placed Reserve Champion at the2009 National Calf Show handling and came 2nd in the National Clipping Competition of 2009.
Kat is interested in all areas of farm practice. She is involved with the practice’s beef group as she and her fiancé have recently started up a new herd of Aberdeen Angus “Elm View.” They have both had successes in the show ring and have invested in some Canadian embryos. However, Kat’s main passion is dairy young stock rearing.    

Beatrice McCorkell BVSc MRCVS

B joined the practice in 2010 year from Liverpool Vet School and decided towards the end of vet school that farm animals was what she wanted to specialise in and spent a lot of time seeing practice in the Scottish Borders and Yorkshire. She enjoys all aspects of farm animal practice, and is getting involved in as many things as possible at The George. B enjoys a sociable beverage and is hoping to get more involved in country sports in order to provide food for her freezer.

Val Hopes

Val Hopes joined the practice in September 1987 working within the small animal team.   Having established her role within this department  she moved to the fast expanding farm team as the Farm Administrator, involved in all aspects of the day-to-day running of this department.
This role she enjoys as her family have historically worked within the farming industry.
Her interests include walking, riding and an active support for  whale and dolphin conservation.

Emma-Fleur Lane

Lindsay Wakefield 

Lindsay joined the practice in July 2008 and is in charge of the practice dispensary.  Along with Fliss she helps dispense the pig drug orders.  She is responsible for ordering all drugs for the practice.   She is interested in all animals and has a small holding.

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