Figure 38. A wheel and runner type tool outfitted for dust bag only (top) and both a cattle rub and dust bag (bottom). There should be little or no need to use both the cattle rub and the dust bag.

Figure 39. A portable tool rigged for dust bags only (top) and a similar tool rigged with dust bags over the feeder and a cattle rub (bottom). (Photos courtesy Norman Ward)

Figure 40. The tool with the tall riser laid down making it ready to pull under a one wire electric fence.

There are several homemade or commercial items that could be considered accessories that may be appealing or helpful to some graziers.

A homemade reservoir could be added to the top portion of the riser at the top of the cattle rub. This container could be a sealed five-gallon bucket outfitted with a petcock at or near the bottom. The container needs an air vent near the top to prevent a vacuum from forming. The petcock would need a tube extending to near the top of the cattle rub. The tube is needed to apply the insecticide solution very near to and directly on the rub without wind blowing it away from the rub. The petcock needs to be one that can be set very fine to administer only a few drops as needed to dampen the rub over a day or several days. Through trial and error the amount to apply over an appropriate time can be determined. The petcock can be used to completely shut off flow of insecticide as needed. The purpose of this reservoir is to add more convenience to the tool and to possibly keep it wetted better to prevent parasite buildup such as in the case of lice.

We have only sparingly used dust bag techniques with the tool because the cattle rub technique performed excellently for our purposes. The optional extended arm at the top of the tall riser can be used for this purpose (Figures 7,10, 12, 37 and 38). A portable tool set up only for dust bags is shown in Figures 38 (top) and 39 (top) and it can be altered to facilitate both dust bag and cattle rub design (Figure 39, bottom).

Accessorizing to use two cattle rubs with the feeder position in the middle may be helpful in large herds of 150 head or more. This would double the cattle rub area to about 20 feet compared to 10 feet with only one cattle rub. The usual feeder space shown in the models pictured will more than suffice for up to about 400 head of cattle.

The tall riser can be constructed to hinge and fold down onto and lay on the top of the saltmineral portion of the tool without a roof (Figures 36, 37 and 40). The early models of the tool we made were constructed this way. The purpose of this was to allow the tool to be moved under one wire electric fence during a cattle rotation to an adjacent paddock (Figure 40). This could be more convenient than pulling the tool a relatively long distance around and through gates, lanes and other travel ways in large grazing units or in hauling the tool long distances in a pickup or trailer to the adjacent paddock. There may be little benefit to this accessory where the tool is used in a small grazing unit where travel through gates and other travel ways is not an obstacle to grazier-friendly management.

The cattle rub can be outfitted with accessory strips of fabric, commercially called "face flips," that possibly wipe more insecticide solution onto the cattle as they use the tool (Figures 41, 42, 47 and 48). We have not found that to be necessary for good fly control, but other graziers may deem the strips beneficial. The commercial face flips may be used or the grazier may make these by using absorbent heavy weight cotton duck or wool fabric.

Commercial "bullets" may also be used in much the same way as the face flips (Figure 41) if the grazier thinks they are a benefit.

Another accessory use might be the forced use of the cattle rub, face flips, or bullets (Figure 42). As cattle use this tool to access salt, mineral, or bait feed in the feeder inside the enclosure, they are forced to touch the cattle rub and face flips and therefore contact the insecticide for parasite control. This type of setup, however, does not wipe the lower sides and legs of cows, nor small calves. There are many ways to incorporate this type of function on various models if it is deemed necessary.

An item that could be considered an accessory is a two-part tool model we experimented with. The hypothesis was to construct this tool so the salt/mineral feeder portion and the cattle rub could be uncoupled and used separately. The idea was to park the tool coupled together until cattle learned to use the cattle rub (Figure 43, top), then uncouple it and park the separated parts in different paddock locations to enhance cattle dispersal (Figure 43, bottom). It was obvious that even through the cattle used the cattle rub when it was in a separate location, they did not use it nearly as well as when the tool was coupled and in close juxtaposition. After that observation, this unit was used primarily as a combined single tool unit. However, this idea may be useful to other graziers.

Figure 41. A steel and wood constructed tool with feeder roof and "face flips" on the cattle rub (top) and another tool with "bullets" (bottom). (Top photo courtesy Norman Ward; bottom photo courtesy Jim Singleton)

Figure 42. Another type model with enclosed feeder, cattle rub, and face flips forcing cattle to contact the rub and flips as they use the feeder inside. (Photo courtesy Norman Yordi).

Figure 43. An experimental two-part model coupled together (top) or uncoupled and the two parts located in separate areas of the paddock (bottom).