Roland Sipos is a practical man with both feet firmly on the ground. His dedication to large animal medicine is clearly shown by the fact that he already has five heifers in his farm back in his Somogy County home. Veterinary students are typically characterized by a certain kind of prudent thoughtfulness but listening to him speaking about his chosen profession makes me think that he will be glad to show this interview to the people celebrating him when he will be presented his golden diploma in 2070. Here’s an extract of our interview with him.

– I’m a fifth-year veterinary student. I live in Som with my parents and my younger brother who is about to choose his career path. He wants to be a psychologist at the moment. My mother is a school assistant. My father has a mechanical technician degree and he is planning to launch his electrician business. His parents were involved in farming. Unfortunately, by the time I grew up there hadn’t really been any livestock left in the family’s ownership. Nevertheless, I decided to become a veterinarian when I was at the little farm back in our village. I’ve never had second thoughts about that, and I think I am on the path that I’ve always wanted to take. I bought my first cattle livestock on 1 May. At the moment, my livestock consists of five heifers from the Hungarian Spotted breed. I would like to have more later on but it greatly depends on where I can get a job as a vet and how much time I will have left to run the farm.

  – You’re a strong and fit guy, probably because you used to be actively involved in sports.

– Back in primary school, I got into an eastern martial art called nihon tai jitsu and I was an active practitioner for eight years. I had no time for it in secondary school, though. That’s where I started doing gymnastics. We had a great team; we won the national championship in the Student Olympics in two years. I did well in the individual competition, too. I also tried my hand at Baranta, this ancient Hungarian martial art. That’s all in the past now. Between my university studies, developing my home farm and my internship at the Hungarian subsidiary of the US-based MSD Company I have no time left for anything else.

  – What’s your goal with your little herd?

– I do pasture-based animal husbandry along the Kis-Koppány Creek. This kind of farming obviously needs a larger area. Since I don’t yet have the machinery to help me in my work, it requires significant manual labour, which means many working hours. But I think there is a market segment that appreciates it. Pasture-raised and antibiotic-free beef is completely different from the products coming from an industrialized farm. The first offspring is expected in the spring of 2021. The real key thing here is that livestock density is much smaller than in an intensive farm so there are much less potential problems, too.

  – How do you envision your future as a vet?

– I’ve been thinking a lot about that. This year’s practice management conference just had a great lecture by Imre Limpár on what success actually is. I agree that success cannot be measured by how rich or acclaimed you are. The most important thing is to have free time. I don’t want to fall into the trap of becoming the vet who responds to every phone call and works up to 14-15 hours a day. It would be great to work eight hours at, let’s say, a livestock facility and keep developing my own farm in my free time. With a lot of experience and constant learning, you can also become an advisor, which perhaps offers an even more promising future.

  – Are you married?

– I have a girlfriend. Her name is Emese Kurilla and she’s a second-year veterinary student. We’ve been together for over a year now. It just so happens that her family has a sizeable Charolais beef cattle farm. They are a bit far from us, though: in Csanádapáca, Békés County. We spend a lot of time on both farms, and we help each other a lot. After studying, I find spending time around animals to be perfect for recharging my batteries.

  – I heard it through the grapevine that you started a very special kind of team-building: you created a wine society.

– Last year my grandfather told me he wanted me to carry on with his winery. I gave it some thought and I soon realized I surely won’t have the time and energy to do it all on my own. I figured if there is a solid group of friends around me, like about ten, always mobilizable guys and girls, why couldn’t we do it together? Everybody was enthusiastic about my idea. On our first visit, we put the site in order and we have just finished our first harvest, too. We have both red and white wine in our cellar, and we will bottle it. We’ll give some to our Rector, which will also mark the symbolic foundation of society.