Veterinary practices in rural Ireland are struggling to keep staff due to anti-social hours involved in farm work.

Especially in spring with birthing season underway, the sector is vital to Irish agriculture and the horse industry.

Archerfield Clinic in Kilkenny vet Richard Ryan told The Pat Kenny Show that his practice shares its on-call rota with another clinic to allow for a better work-life balance.

"There's very few younger vets going down that road of being on call 365 days of the year, it's just very hard to balance a family life with that," he said.

"So, most people now work in practices, and those practices have gotten bigger over the last few years, so if you have more vets in your practice you can spread the on-call.

"We share with Druids Lodge in town and it works really well for us, we have a great relationship with the vets there.

"Their clients are very happy for us to see them out of ours, and ours are happy to see them."

You can listen back to the full interview here:

Main image: Veterinary medicine at the farm. Image: Jaromír Chalabala / Alamy. 10 August 2017