After more than 30 years in the business, Dr Bob Rheinberger has been recognised as the best in Australia.
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The Mittagong vet has been named Australia’s 2017 Bovine (cattle) Practitioner of the Year.
His passion for cattle came along almost accidentally.
“I was part of a practice in Quirindi, and my partner there was an excellent cattle vet,” he said.
“I started learning from him – it wasn’t planned, just one of those subtle moves that changes everything.”
His office is adorned with nods to cattle, from sketches to little statues.
“About 80 per cent of my work is with cattle, and I really enjoy them, they have such a curious nature,” Dr Rheinberger said.
“I put my car in a paddock one day, and when I came back I could hardly see out of the windscreen, the cattle had licked every inch.
“I had also made the mistake of leaving the window open, and a cow had sucked on my steering wheel, leaving a pool of saliva on the floor.”
After Quirindi, he taught cattle medicine at the University of Sydney’s Camden campus until 2001.
“You don’t realise how much the students teach, on a lot of occasions they mentor you. They also renewed an enthusiasm in me.”
Dr Rheinberger’s work with cattle has taken him to some amazing places.
“I worked at Taronga Zoo for three years with the cattle there, and I also had the chance to work with the antelopes and giraffes.
“The giraffes were great, they have such long necks, so when I was working on them they would turn back and look at me like ‘what are you doing back there?’”
Dr Rheinberger founded Mittagong’s Ironmines Veterinary Clinic in 2009 with his daughter Joey, and still enjoys going out to help the community at any hour.
“I could be out in the middle of the night helping a cow give birth, or four-to-five hours in the day preg-testing,” he said.
“I spend a lot of time with the farmers themselves, and many have become very close friends.”
Dr Rheinberger said there was one thing he wished he could change in his career.
“$1 milk is very sad, it has undervalued my friends’ work and they have struggled a lot. If my farmers are doing well, then their cows will be doing better too.”
