Dr Mark Bryan is an experienced veterinarian and director of VetSouth, a large Southland-based veterinary practice.
He said stress among veterinarians was a major issue.
"Vets place high expectations on themselves and the outcomes they deliver," Dr Bryan said.
"They are often performing disgusting tasks in difficult conditions under significant time and economic constraints and with inadequate facilities.
"Animals don't always get better and outcomes are not always positive, and many vets find this aspect of their work difficult to manage.
"I counsel younger vets with the scenario that if you have no passion for what you do then you don't care about the outcome and hence don't get too bothered if things don't go well.
"But equally, you get little pleasure out of your work when things go well.
"If, on the other hand, you are passionate about what you do, then you will experience tremendous satisfaction in successful problem solving and patient outcomes, but you will also feel the pain when things go wrong.
"Passion is therefore a double-edged sword, but vets who have no passion for what they do should stop doing it."
He said if they also considered that farmers were also under significant stress in the spring when the bulk of large animal veterinary work took place, then there could be a lot of pressure on vets.
He said clients might not always be understanding and they also might not appreciate that the vet had been working long hours and perhaps attended out-of-hours calls, too.
"Economic pressure on farmers is readily transferred to service providers.
"Farmers are required to make short-term business decisions that may damage established relationships and operating under an economic cloud makes everyone slightly less amenable than they otherwise may be."
He said similarly, working in remote rural areas meant the complex and supportive social network that younger vets in particular were used to having all through school and college was often absent, and this was of major importance when young vets experienced trying times.
"The incidence of suicide among vets is unacceptably high, and similarly the incidence of depression and mental illness is also higher than most other occupations," he said.
"I think the most important thing that a vet clinic can provide is a supportive working environment."
Dr Bryan said this involved spreading the workload among more vets, having mentors within the practice and experienced colleagues to bounce ideas off and minimising the stress of on-call by having a good, well-balanced after-hours roster.
"It also involves providing social frameworks for younger vets and allowing them resources and time to develop and become confident.
"One of our major goals when setting up Vetsouth was to provide an environment for our vets - particularly younger vets - that would support and encourage them in whatever direction they chose to go.
"And by doing this, it is easier to attract and retain them.
"We aim to mentor and protect our younger vets as far as is reasonable to minimise the stress they find themselves in.
"We work hard at being over-staffed with regard to vets and support staff so that during busy periods vets don't find themselves under too much pressure.
"There is a cost in this, particularly because farming is such a seasonal business and hence stocking a clinic with enough vets for a busy spring means that there may be not enough work at other times of the year.
"But our clients on the whole are supportive of the breadth of service that this allows us to provide, and the continuity of staff and care that comes with having staff who never leave."
He said attracting vets to Southland was challenging, and the practice had worked hard during the years to create an environment that was as supportive as possible while still being financially sustainable.
"I think the future will see more co-operative-type arrangements with clinics working more closely together to share resources and so maintain staff wellbeing, with all the flow-on effects for quality services for farmers that this provides."
He said farmers ran complex businesses and they wanted to know that their service providers were alert, up to date, and mentally able to handle the complexity.