The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube, Farming ussues
AT times the most useful advice you can give someone is the most basic one. The rainy season is herewith us and as usual it is a time of happiness for the farmer in general and the livestock farmer in particular.
The farmer is relieved of the burden of feeding and watering his animals, a task which he has carried on his shoulders for over five months in most of the drier regions of the country.
However, the rainy season also brings along challenges for the livestock farmer, mainly in the form of pests multiplication and subsequently disease spread.
This is the time we get lots of tick infestation on our animals, in fact all kinds of ticks come into life and their numbers multiply.
Therefore, today we want to revisit those very basic management practices which help farmers prevent or deal with challenges brought by the wet season.
The primary management being to dip your animals regularly, which is every week. Choose an effective dipping chemical and apply it correctly every week.
The most common mistake done by most farmers regarding effective dipping, is use of inadequate amounts.
If one is using a knapsack sprayer, they use a weaker dipping solution in trying to stretch the time the small bottle they bought would last. In addition to using a weak solution, they do not adequately spray the animal to make it completely wet as is required.
Actually in some cases there is no cattle race and animals are sprayed being chased around the kraal and the result is poor application of the dipping chemical.
My advice therefore is that farmers should buy enough dipping chemical, use the recommended mixing ratios when diluting the chemical, then thoroughly spray your animals to make sure each and every animal is completely soaked.
This will naturally require that you need animal restraining facilities such as a cattle race where you would spray your animals restrained in one place rather than chasing them around the kraal.
Dip your animals every week and always scout for tick infestation on your animals because in some cases you may even need to dip them again before a week elapses due to heavy tick load in your farm.
Most importantly choose your dipping chemicals wisely, do not just go for the cheapest every time even when it has shown to be less effective against ticks. Ideally your animals should be clean of ticks the following day after a dipping session today.
In fact, I know some dipping chemicals that are so powerful, you will notice ticks literally dropping off your animals less than 30 minutes after spraying. You don’t want dipping chemicals that are so weak, you can’t even tell that your animals were dipped yesterday! Again you need to rotate your dipping chemical so that your ticks do not build resistance against the chemical you are using.
Some chemicals can be so effective that you may find yourself buying the same dipping chemical every time and this is not advisable. You may also need to use tick grease on your animals instead of spraying especially when it is raining almost every day because at times it rains soon after spraying your animals and the chemical simply washes off before it is effective on the ticks.
Tick grease does not wash away that easily, making it effective under such conditions. Obviously if you have a big herd this means a lot of work because you have to restrain each animal and generously apply the tick grease on areas preferred by ticks and this can be cumbersome. Another important management practice is deworming your animals.
They have been scavenging for food in an almost bare ground, eating everything and anything, they are likely to be heavily infested with internal parasites. It is a good practice to dose your animals as they begin the lush green grass. This will make your animals improve body condition very fast and in no time you will see your cows and heifers going on heat and the factory goes on production mode! Again it is standard practice to rotate your drenching chemicals to prevent resistance build up by parasites.
Lastly on our list of basic farmer advice during this time of the year, have at least more than one kraal. Your kraal will get so muddy you can’t even get in there to attend to your animals. It means your animals will not lie down during the night, but will be standing the whole night as a result of a muddy kraal. Such kraal conditions will predispose your animals to other diseases such as foot rot.
Another pen will allow you to move your animals while you rest the other muddy pen. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
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