Holly Neaton, ’79 DVM, remembers traveling 40 miles from her hometown of Watertown, Minn., to campus for all four of her years at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). Her commitment to the field of veterinary medicine and the CVM propelled her through her DVM. “I felt we had an excellent education,” she says. “It’s amazing what a veterinary degree will lead you to. I think it opens more doors than any other degree.”

Neaton says she has had a passion for veterinary medicine for as long as she can remember. She became particularly gripped by large animal medicine while shadowing Leland Thal, ’54 DVM, as a high schooler. “I started out focusing on dairy production medicine as a veterinary student,” she says, “which is what I would still be doing today if there were still dairy cows around Watertown.” In the late 90s, she sold her part of a practice and started raising sheep professionally, which she had previously done as a hobby.

One of her top clients? The University of Minnesota. “People started calling about sheep for medical research,” she says. She wound up selling her sheep to the U of M and other research facilities for 20 years. “The University is known all over the world for their juvenile cardiovascular research,” she says. “Our sheep have been relied upon for the majority of that research.” Her sheep have been helpful in developing medical devices over the years that have improved the lives of many people.

“That business grew to be too much for my husband and me,” says Neaton, who sold it to a local veterinary practice in 2018. Now, she raises sheep for breeding stock and provides farmers markets and local specialty stores with lamb.

Neaton also provided the sheep for the CHS Miracle of Birth Center at the Great Minnesota Get-Together—where she is one of several cochairs—for 15 years. Now she spends some of her time at the State Fair in a new appointment: one of the official veterinarians.

Neaton has been involved with the CHS Miracle of Birth Center since its start in 2001. CVM alumni Mary Olson, ’76 DVM, and Florian Ledermann, ’64 DVM, set out to create an exhibit that reflected how large animal veterinarians and farmers work together to keep animals healthy and maintain a safe food supply. “There were a few birthing centers at other state fairs across the country that Olson and Ledermann visited before approaching the Minnesota State Fair about starting one here,” Neaton says. “They knew I raised sheep, and they asked if I wanted to help. Nineteen years later, we are still there every August!”

Over the last 19 years, the CHS Miracle of Birth Center has established itself as an epicenter for informing the public about food animal production and animal care. It partners with the CVM to teach third and fourth year students on rotation. Hundreds of veterinarians, veterinary students, and FFA high school students volunteer annually to educate the fairgoers.

Neaton says there have been other states that have tried to imitate the Minnesota model—a four-pronged partnership between the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association, FFA, the fair, and the CVM—but few have been as successful as the CHS Miracle of Birth Center, since all four partners work so well together. “None of us could do it by ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Neaton’s passion for Polypay sheep is satiated by the couple of hundred sheep she still raises with her husband. To her, this means the operation is “slowing down,” but her love for veterinary medicine continues to keep her at full speed.