History

Our Rich History Explained

Rolling Hills Veterinary Services P.C. was founded in June 1983 by Dr. Bob Kadlec and Dr. Mike Kuhn. They were recent graduates from Iowa State University and purchased the practice in Cascade from Dr. McGory. Looking for more work they wanted to expand and opened a satellite clinic in LaMotte in 1984. They rented a portion of the old Parish Hall and added Dr. Bruce Luschen to the practice. It wasn’t too long after that they consolidated with Dr. Joe Jedlicka and Dr. Tom White. At that time, the practice was equally split between Dairy, Beef, and Swine. In addition, a dispensing office was opened in Bernard that was managed by Carl Merfeld. All communication was done by landline phones and CB radios. Moreover, the 911 address system was not in place and rural directions were found by using the county plat books.

In 1990, a new office was built in LaMotte with a small haul in facility to accommodate the growing business. The practice thrived in the 1980’s and in 1990 Dr. Chris Paulson was hired on, and in 1993 Dr. Dave Prentice was added to the practice and Dr. Bruce Luschen left the practice. The following year Dr. Paulson left the practice and Dr. Tom Lapke was hired in May of 1994. There were many changes to the practice in the 1990’s. Dr. Prentice left the practice in 1997 and Dr. Mike Kuhn left the practice in 1998 and Dr. Kim Bergfeld was hired to join RHVS at that time. Business was slow at times mainly due to the swine market crashes in 1994 and 1998. Dr. Lapke did some contract work for Dr. DW Yanda in Maquoketa and Dr. Kim Bergfeld expanded the small animal portion of the business by doing contract work with Dr. Charlie Bregman in Key West. In the early 1990’s RHVS was a 7 Doctor practice and at the end of the decade it was a 4 Doctor practice. In the early 2000’s the practice consisted primarily of Beef, Dairy and a growing small animal clientele. To keep the business moving forward we purchased Key West Animal Clinic and split our time between livestock and small animal medicine.

In 2010 Dr. Kadlec left RHVS to start a small animal practice in Fairfax, Ia and Dr. Bergfeld became a solo practitioner and purchased Key West Animal Clinic. Dr. Jedlicka and Lapke remained the sole co-owners of RHVS and the livestock industry started to grow in the area and business picked up. Dr. Tyler Feldhacker was hired 2012, but left the practice in 2014 to be closer to his hometown in Northwest Iowa. Another veterinarian was hired in 2014, but he was not prepared for the very busy livestock practice and left the practice. So, in 2015 Dr. Luke Thole was hired and began to further expand the business. With business growing, another veterinarian was needed, and Dr. Chris Rock joined the practice in 2017. The practice continued to grow and in May of 2022 Dr. Logan McQuillen was hired and Dr. Jedlicka retired from RHVS. In July of 2023 Dr. Rock left RHVS and in October of 2023 Dr. Juli Wilson was hired.

Our business has been ever changing since 1983, many personnel have come and gone. The Cascade and LaMotte offices have been remodeled multiple times to keep up with the changing practice. We have always strived to be on the forefront of livestock production medicine and promoting good relationships with our clientele. We have also expanded our small animal services, offering routine medicine, bloodwork, radiographs, and surgery.