"Tailpaint” heat detection aid

Press, 8 September 1978, Page 14

"Tailpaint” heat detection aid

A “tailpaint” has been developed by ICI Tasman, Ltd, to help detect “heat” in cattle. It has been developed in conjunction with the Ruakura animal research station near Hamilton.

The paint is available in three colours — red, green and blue — and costs around $5.83 per litre, which is enough for about 100 cows.

The paint and the technique for using it, which are New Zealand ideas, will probably be adopted in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and in Europe. The idea has already been tried in the past on dairy farms but the use of standard commercially available paints has often proved unreliable and disappointing, and hence it has been necessary to enlist the help of the paint industry to come up with a suitable material.

The ICI product was developed after trying many formulations of experimental paint. To be effective the paint has to meet the following criteria:— (i) It must penetrate to skin level and adhere to

the skin and to the hair; (ii) it must not adversely affect the animal’s skin; (iii) it must dry fairly quickly; (iv) it must come off, but not come off too easily; (v) it must come off when the animal positively stands to be ridden; (vi) it must persist on “noncycling” animals for at least three weeks — preferably six weeks with a re-touch; and (vii) it must be available in three bright colours.

The technique involves the application of a strip of paint six to eight inches long and one to two inches wide along the cow’s sacrum, just in front of where the tail leaves the body, Only two strokes of the brush are necessary — one against the hair and the second to smooth it down. The object is to leave a thick skin of paint adhering to the hair and the underlying skin, which will break and be lost bit by bit as another animal mounts the “bulling” one, A casual mount will not be sufficient to change the appearance of the paint, otherwise non-bulling cows will be read as positive.