i) Running water

As for dams, using running water to water livestock requires careful management to protect the resource and maintain water quality.
Stock can cause significant disturbance to soil and vegetation on stream and river banks. This leads to stream bank erosion and in turn, soil loss and water quality decline. Livestock also graze and trample vegetation, inhibit plant regeneration and cause faecal pollution of water.
Ideally stock should not have direct access to rivers, stream or creeks. Instead, off-stream watering sites such as tanks and troughs that are filled from the water source should be installed.
If direct stock access is unavoidable, they should have fenced and managed access points to minimise and contain damage.

Boxed section:
LIVESTOCK CONTROL NEAR CREEKS, STREAMS AND RIVERS

Why should stock be kept off stream banks?
• they eat, trample and destroy the vegetation that protects banks from erosion and nutrient inflow
• they compact the soil making plant growth difficult.
• they push soils off steep banks
• they make tracks, which can concentrate the flow of water down the banks causing erosion
• they may injure themselves falling over steep banks.

Why should stock be kept out of streams?
• they eat, trample and destroy water plants and reeds that control erosion and provide fish habitat
• they stir up mud
• they can get bogged and trapped in mud
• they can transfer and receive diseases
• they contaminate the water with excess nutrients from manure
• they destroy instream habitat critical for native fish and crustaceans

How will stock get a drink if they can’t get to the stream?
You can install:
• a paved gravel ramp down to the water, preferably on the inside of a bend
• a bore and tank in the paddock
• a dam in the paddock
• IDEALLY a pump, tank and trough in the paddock.

How do you manage a fenced-off area?
• short-term grazing ‘crash grazing’ by stock can be used once vegetation is established
• weeds will need to be controlled as per the surrounding paddocks.

How do we pay?
There are grants available to assist with off-stream water provision and fencing. Contact the NSW Office of Water, Murrumbidgee Catchment Authority or Greening Australia.
Source: Adapted from RIVERWISE notes AGDEX 572, DLWC

ALSO USE DIAGRAM on page 38
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