Yes, the Southern Africa Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF) has since indicated that the bulk of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, Zimbabwe included, is likely to receive normal to above-normal rainfall between October to December (OND) 2021 and January to March (JFM) 2022 following the conclusion of the recent 25th virtual meeting on the region’s weather outlook for next season.

The regional weather and climate experts also examined the potential impacts of the forecast season and said there was a likelihood of locust outbreaks, crickets, and the fall armyworm, before urging SADC member states to intensify surveillance to minimise damage to crops.

The forecast essentially whetted farmers’ appetite for more success and with another potentially fruitful season beckoning on the horizon, the farmers may be forgiven for devoting most of their energies to mobilising their cropping requirements, especially with the majority embracing the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme that does not require cattle much.

It is, however, critical for farmers who have cattle to be also doing something towards the welfare of their animals, especially in relation to containing ticks that have in recent seasons been responsible for more than 500 000 cattle deaths countrywide.

This is the time for cattle farmers to be working with their livestock development committees (LCD) and the local veterinary officers to repair plunge dips that may require facelifts to ensure uninterrupted dipping programmes during the wet season when there are high tick populations.

It is the duty of the LCDs to ensure that everything required to see plunge dips functioning is in place while they also arrange vaccination programmes, as well as the watering of dip tanks.

They must make sure there are reliable water sources to enable total replenishment of dip tanks after every dipping session with fresh water being brought in while the administration of the acaricides should also be done with expert advice from the veterinary officer or dip attendant.

In the event that farmers are buying their own acaricides, it may be necessary for them to allow the veterinary officer to see the chemicals for authentication purposes before they are used.

Dipping chemicals should be procured from reputable sources, and not from the streets to avoid using fake chemicals that may end up promoting resistance in ticks or even harming the cattle.

The Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) chief director Dr Josphat Nyika recently confirmed that there are enough dipping chemicals to see the country through to the end of the year, while there is also a budget for the rehabilitation and maintenance of plunge dips countrywide.

This should be sweet news to farmers who still have cattle in the wake of the January disease holocaust that saw a lot of cattle dying with some farmers selling their animals for a song to escape outright losses.

In the past years, the farmers’ biggest undoing has been the shortage of dipping chemicals, which was responsible for numerous deaths among cattle with farmers blaming DVS for not availing the acaricides.

Now the boot is on the other foot and DVS has the chemicals for use in the fight to contain tick-borne diseases so farmers must play their part to make it easy for everyone.

They must make sure their animals are sent for dipping in line with the schedules availed to them by their veterinary officers.

At the moment the farmers are supposed to be dipping their cattle once every two weeks because tick populations are still low, as we are just emerging from winter.

This schedule is set to change with the onset of the approaching summer season that will require January disease hotspots to dip their cattle three times in 14 days in line with the 5:5:4 dipping schedule.

Some farmers, especially from the A2 category, have the capacity to run their plunge dips, but may not have the technical expertise to effectively run the dip tanks, which makes it critical for them to also engage veterinary officers for assistance.

There is also another group that relies on spray dips in place of plunge dips.

This group needs to make sure the body of the animal is thoroughly drenched after every spraying activity.

The degree of wetness should not differ from that of cattle going through the plunge dip to make sure all ticks clinging on to the animal’s body are killed by the chemicals.

It is also exciting to note that the Presidential tick grease programme has come at a time when many farmers are still licking bruised egos after losing entire herds to tick-borne diseases.

This programme will essentially bring in the missing link and account for those stubborn ticks that have been surviving chemicals used in plunge dips, as the grease is applied directly to those parts of the animals where the plunge dip may not be very effective.

Tick grease has been availed at all of the country’s 4 000 dip tanks in the communal areas, with farmers also accessing it from selected Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots.

Each farmer is expected to get 1kg of  tick grease, which should be applied once a week in between dippings to ensure there is no period during which ticks can be free to attack the cattle without being affected by some chemical presence.

One positive development is that there are adequate stocks of the grease while Government has also introduced toll manufacturing of some of the acaricides through Chemplex, which guarantees continuity in the fight to control the ticks.

But it is not tick-borne diseases alone that farmers must be wary of this coming wet season.

There is anthrax, lumpy skin and foot rot that are equally bad and even fatal if not attended to in time.

Anthrax is found in the soil and cattle can easily pick it when they go about feeding on the emerging green grass while lumpy skin is caused by high incidences of biting flies.

Farmers just need to provide their cattle with supplementary feeding briefly at the onset of the rains to allow the grass to grow tall for safe grazing to lessen chances of cattle picking the anthrax bacteria from the soil.

Foot rot, as the name suggests, involves damage to the hooves when animals spend hours on end standing in muddy kraals. Control is through rotational use of kraals.