18/10/2025
The Dipmaster
The Dipmaster presents a hands-on reality approach.
This approach is hands-on. When it is strategically the correct management strategy to control ticks preventatively and/or during unprecedented conditions where urgent tick control is needed, the Dipmaster will ensure that the dip regime occurs without any dependency on labour, time, a power source, or season. With the Dipmaster, tick control will be timely without any constraints, except for adequate volumes of dipping fluid in the system.
The Dipmaster Application: Introduction.
The Dipmaster is a labour-free, power-source-free, environmentally friendly dipping device with three preset volumes set during manufacturing.
Due to the limited time available while the animal passes over the Dipmaster, dispensing must be soft and immediate upon activation, targeting predetermined positions where ticks of importance prefer to take their blood meals. The front leg, as well as the hind leg, activates the dispensing unit in the Dipmaster.
• For plains game, the proposed volume per activation is 10 ml per actuation. Resulting in a total dip volume of 20 ml per animal. Enough for an animal up to 200 kgs.
• Bigger animals, such as medium-frame cattle, and animals up to 300 kg, a 15ml application per activation is adequate. Resulting in a dispensed volume of 30 ml per 300 kg animal.
• Animals up to 400 kg, a 20ml dose per step actuation is recommended. A volume sufficient for an animal weighing up to 400 kg.
Average Speed of Animals Walking
The speed at which the animals pass over the Dipmaster is a critical factor in dispensing the preset volume of acaricide.
• The dip must be dispensed gently by first actuation directly onto the shoulders, spreading to the dewlap and the chest of the animal.
• The second actuation needs to dispense the dipping fluid onto the loins, allowing the dipping fluid to spread to the rear flank, the front and rear udder, the tail, and, essentially, the reproductive organs.
When animals pass over the Dipmaster, it is preferred to do so at a normal pace. Thus, to avoid stress and excessive movement, to prevent jumping, running, or becoming overly excited and exhausted.
The average speed of cattle walking is typically between 3 and 6.5 kilometres per hour. This can vary depending on the breed, length, size, age, health, and terrain.
Generally, healthy adult cattle walking without apparent stress will walk comfortably at approximately 5 kilometres per hour. Converting kilometres per hour to metres per second, the average distance the animals will move is approximately 1.39 metres per second.
Within these time and speed parameters, the Dipmaster must dispense the preset volume of acaricide onto the animal's flank or back at the allowed time and walking speed per actuation.
The Essential Factor in Dispensing.
The dispensing feature intends to apply tickicide directly to areas where ticks of economic importance are likely to attach. These body parts—the ears, reproductive organs, teats, and tail—are critical to their health and reproduction. During seasonal outbreaks, the accurate dispensing of tickicide onto these vital organs is of the utmost importance.
Tick outbreaks can result in significant animal losses and/or organ damage, such as ears and udders. The applicator will be a critical management tool during peak tick seasons in South Africa's summer and will operate 24/7, as necessary. This period is also the annual Christmas and New Year season, during which there may be a shortage of trustworthy labour, leaving the breeder extremely vulnerable to tick-caused losses.
The Labour Component
The Dipmaster functions independently of labour, time, and or any external power source. It is installed at ground level at pathways or entrances to kraals, bomas, or crush pens. While the installation process is straightforward, careful planning is crucial to ensure that the animal steps onto the device correctly.
The dispensing of tickicide is triggered by the weight of the animal.
When the animal shifts its weight onto the device with its hoof, the hidden mechanism is activated. The animal's weight is the sole power source required to activate the Dipmaster as a dipping device.
Two sets of activation take place—an activation by the step of the front hoof, and immediately thereafter, an activation from the pressure/step-on of the hind hoof.
Mechanical actuation
When the animal shifts its weight onto the hidden device with its hoof, it activates the mechanical parts within the Dipmaster.
The setup of the Dipmaster.
The external arrangement is critical. The arrangement in the pathway must ensure that the animal steps on the hidden device during its normal stride. The weight will then activate the applicator's dispensing function. To ensure the dipping fluid is applied to the animal, natural obstacles must be used to secure the step-on on the hidden applicator.
Medium-sized blue gum poles of medium height or thickness (200-250 mm thickness) manipulate the animal's pace along the pathway. It forces the animal to step over the obstacle onto the hidden device, which immediately dispenses a dose of dipping fluid at the nozzle setting.
The dispensing nozzle must be positioned in such a way that it is dispensing the fluid at the most critical body parts of the animal.
Explanation of the movement.
1. Herbivores or four-legged animals. In a passive mode, they transfer their weight across their four legs.
2. In movement, four-legged animals transfer their total weight in chorus onto the two grounded hoofs.
3. Four-legged animals, with specific reference to cattle and game, have a unique hoof progression in their movement. They naturally put, when walking, their hind hoofs on top, or marginally behind the previous position of the front hoof.
4. An action that is used as an actuating tool to dispense a second volume of tickicide. Because of the forward movement, the dipping fluid is sprayed across the whole flank of the animal.
Dispensing
Lessons learned from experience have shown that a preset volume of 10 -20 ml per actuation is the most effective strategy. It prevents
• Waste of expensive dipping fluids
• A margin of 10 ml on the side of an animal such as an eland or oryx is not a disturbing factor. They do get used to the dipping process relatively easily, as the application of the tickicide is without sound, gentle, and without force of any sort.
• There is also waste, and if there is a sound of sorts, it will be the absolute minimum.
• In the case of a game, the nozzle must preferably be out of direct eyesight of the animal and directly in touch with the body.
Restrictions of the applicator.
1. It is an oil-based “Pour on” fluid applicator.
2. Sensitive game species will smell the tickicide if not familiar with the new dip arrangement, the entrance, and its smells—even the new dip applicator.
3. The prescribed dose is 1ml: 10 kg.
4. The dispensing volume is approximately 10 ml per activation. Cattle up to 15 ml and 20 ml per activation.
In the case of cattle.
When cattle need to be dipped, their weight is a matter to consider. A bull weighing 800 kg will have to pass through the system twice to receive the required volume of dipping fluid. The system does not apply a proportional volume of tickicide based on the animal's weight. As said, it is a factory preset volume of fluid.
The operative means of the Dipmaster.
• The system needs dipping fluid to be operational.
• The dip activity can be manually shut off via a shut-off valve
• It will only become operational once the valve is manually reopened.
• The Dipmaster will also become inactive when there is no dipping fluid to dispense, without harming the system.
Bleeding of the system.
1. Gravity feeds the system and displaces the air in the system's operational means.
2. An airlock in the pipes that feed the pump with dipping fluid is the only factor that can halt the operation.
3. This type of airlock can only occur when the system cannot breathe through the cap of the dip fluid holder.
