Meet our Farm Vet Team
Meet our experienced team of Farm Vets at Mount Vets in Wellington, Wiveliscombe and Broadhembury
Farm Vet Team
Piers Pepperell
Part of Mount Vets for over 25 years, Piers is no stranger in the agricultural world of the South West. He has been a purely farm vet for over twenty of those and developed several interests, including Mastitis control, Bull fertility and teaching. He has taught on behalf of Mount Vets, the Laura Persey Trust, Bicton, and Cornwall colleges, the BCVA and has also been lucky enough to teach overseas at St. Georges University in the West Indies. He also bakes some of the finest chocolate brownies in the land!
Alastair Caygill
Alastair Caygill started his career at the Mount back in the 1990s, and has been a large animal partner for several years. His key interest is in herd disease control and Alastair regularly lectures to farmers on key issues such as BVD and Johnes. He claims that the complexities of disease management pale into insignificance however, when compared with trying to control his herd of three children!
Rob Mangham
Rob qualified from Bristol in 2010, becoming a Director at the Mount in 2018. He has launched the Mount’s Milking Parlour Analysis and Embryo Transfer service. Rob has a keen interest in youngstock, spending time with his like-minded clients in the Mount Vets Youngstock Group. Rob loves a spreadsheet! He can either be found behind a cow or in front of a computer screen. Data analysis to identify disease control opportunities or maximise production efficiency, is a real passion of his.
David Balch
David Balch came to England on a 2 year sabbatical, from Australia, back in 2001. After 5 years in Ledbury, he married the receptionist and moved down to the Mount to specialise in cattle medicine and surgery. Over 20 years on, his sabbatical shows no signs of ending and he now claims to always support England, unless they’re playing against Australia!
Alastair Winearls
Alastair Winearls joins us after three years cutting his teeth as a mixed vet in rural Somerset. He has always wanted to specialise in cattle work and has also developed a keen interest in sheep flock management. He regularly teaches courses on better shepherding and basic sheep husbandry. When not vetting he is a keen sea kayaker and fisherman, which is probably the only thing he could do to make himself smell worse than after a hard days work!
Ollie Judkins
Ollie joined the practice in the summer of 2016 having graduated from the University of Bristol in the same year. He enjoys all aspects of being a large animal vet and has a particular interest in infectious diseases, especially TB. Ollie is a trained TBAS advisor and is currently studying towards a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice. Outside of work, Ollie can be found playing or watching a multitude of sports, and is one of the only Bath Rugby supporters in the area which is often a source of frustration for his Exeter supporting wife
Pip White
Pip may well be a familiar face to many of our clients, having been seen in practice with us for 10 years prior to her graduating as top student in her year from the University of Surrey. Pip joined the Mount Vets team in August 2019 and has managed to get involved in all areas of large animal veterinary. Somerset born and bred, Pip’s family farm is not far from Wellington. They run both a dairy and pedigree British Blue herd, the latter of which has put multiple bulls on AI studs both here and in Ireland. In her spare time Pip can be found in the show ring with her cattle or hiking.
Amy Birch
Amy grew up on her family’s beef cattle property in central Queensland where they breed pedigree Droughtmasters (an Australian breed developed by crossing Brahmans with Shorthorns) and beef-type Fleckvieh. After completing her studies at the University of Queensland in 2021, she worked as a mixed practice vet in a rural area for 18 months before deciding to make the trek to the UK for a change in scenery. After arriving in August 2023, she spent most of her time doing locum work in northern Wales, so she is excited to have joined the Mount Vets team and have a permanent base.
Amy enjoys traveling, playing tennis, horse riding, skiing (not much opportunity for her to do that back home in Queensland, though!) and reading.
Fin Jennings
Fin has spent most of his working life as a farmer, which has taken him all over the world. He is now looking forward to his new challenge as an ATT (Approved Tuberculin Tester). In addition to TB testing, Fin has many Vet Tech roles that allow him to work closely with our cattle, sheep and poultry clients. He enjoys walking his dog ‘Levi’, Young Farmers events and supporting Exeter Chiefs.
Alice Thomas
Alice has always been surrounded by cattle, she was born on a beef and arable farm, studied BioVeterinary Science at university and followed a career in dairy farming.
Alice has joined our team as an additional ATT, as well as undertaking vet tech roles, including freezebranding, mobility scoring and disbudding.
Alice is a keen member of our Calf Health Group and in her spare time she likes to explore Dartmoor and the South Devon coastline with her two dogs, Pickle & Bess.
John Cottey
A man of many talents, John established his own foot trimming business before joining the Mount Vets team, much to our delight. John and his family have been longstanding clients of the practice. Alongside John’s highest available qualifications in foot trimming, he is ROMS (Register of Mobility Scorers) accredited, a proficient freeze-brander, and has fulfilled many roles within various farming enterprises.
Office Team
Hazel Buttle
Hazel has been with Mount Vets for many years. She keeps the farm department running efficiently and takes good care of us all.
She enjoys life at home with her family, walking the dog and cooking. She also swims regularly in the sea all year round.
Julie Shovel
Julie has been with Mount Vets for 13 years. She arranges the vets work and makes sure that they are always organised. This is no mean feat with 10 vets and an ATT to keep busy.
She enjoys walking with her dogs and gardening. Her camper van enables her to go off exploring areas all over the country.
Ali Bolton
Ali has been with Mount Vets for 10 years making sure that our farm dept pharmacy is always running smoothly.
She enjoys life at home with her family and looking after her pedigree flock of Lleyns. Ali is also passionate about all thing’s wool and dyeing her own yarn.
Kerry Chave
Kerry joined Mount Vets in 2019 and you will find her answering phones, booking work, and making sure that the vets are in the right place at the right time.
She enjoys life at home helping with the family farm and riding her pony “Jack”
Leon Lazarczyk
Leon served as a police officer for 30 years in the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary, the majority of his career in Criminal Investigation Department (CID) attaining the rank of Detective Sergeant working in Plymouth, Mid, East and North Devon and finally in the city of Exeter. He retired in 2013 and joined the Mount Vets in July 2014 working at the Colliton Barton practice. Here at Colliton Barton as well as doing reception work and Farm Coordination he also helps our vets by doing lab work and general DIY. He enjoys family time, coastal walks, going away in his campervan, theatre and music festivals as well as supporting Cullompton Rugby Football Club.
Sarah Hutter-Broad
Sarah joined the team in December 2023. She qualified as a Meat Hygiene Inspector with the MHS (now Food Standards Agency) in 1998, studying at Salford University, Manchester. Her working life has predominantly been within the meat production and enforcement industry, with previous employers being Lloyd Maunder LTD, Two Sisters Food Group and Eville & Jones, to name a few.
She has a broad knowledge of meat production from farm to fork and enjoys having the opportunity to learn and share insights in an ever-developing industry.
She is a mother of two. Her son is 21 and works in Construction and her daughter, who is 16, is an apprentice Kitchen & Bathroom Designer and Fitter. In her spare time she enjoys fishing and foraging in our glorious Devonshire countryside. She loves to bake and develop recipes for her family and friends. She plays darts in a local ladies league and supports her daughter who is the Under 21’s captain in Devon Youths Darts Squad.
Claire Waldron
Claire joined the team in April 2024.
Claire grew up visiting her grandparents dairy farm in the school holidays and from that her love of animals grew. After leaving school she went to Bicton College to study horse management then went on to work with horses for 10 years including event, show jumping and point to point yards. A few years after this she ended up working at the Donkey Sanctuary for 12 years, 9 of those as part of the veterinary department in the new arrivals unit, which she found very interesting!
Her hobbies include being an assistant coach for her daughter’s football team and competing in agility competitions with her 2 border collies Mozzi and Spyder who are both in the top grade 7 and she also competes in championship classes.
Nicole Jales
Nicole joined the Mount Vets team in January 2022 as our Marketing Manager and Admin co-ordinator. She’s here to help organise our training courses, events, marketing, and social media channels. She also joins the co-ordination team in our Wellington office every Tuesday, to help answer your calls. She has a background of working on Dairy and sheep farms and studied agriculture at Bicton College, as well as previously being a Training Manager for a global skincare brand. Nicole enjoys spending time outdoors, walking, paddleboarding and spending time with her family.