What we do on the land has an effect on our rivers and streams. This applies to everyone and everything we do, from what we pour down the drain at home, to what we use the land for near to our rivers.
It is therefore not surprising that agriculture has a big influence on the quality of water in our rivers, that are often the source of our drinking water, used for recreation and are home to precious and sometimes rare wildlife.
Farming in a way that helps protect water quality can also be beneficial to the farm business, saving money and time. For example, a fence along the river, preventing livestock access to the water, helps to protect the riverbanks from erosion, reducing the amount of soil and phosphate (which attaches to soil) entering the river. It also saves precious soils and nutrients from being lost from the farm, reduces lameness in cattle particularly, can help reduce cases of Liver Fluke, reduces the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) from neighbouring herds, reduces the amount of time spent looking for ‘wandering’ animals and reduces losses of livestock through drowning during flooding.
In fact, many measures taken to protect water quality, like the fencing mentioned above, as well as, for example, installing spouting and drains to separate clean and dirty water, thereby reducing storage requirements, will often pay themselves back over a relatively short period and then begin to contribute to the profitability and sustainability of the farm business.
In each Source to Tap key theme, you can access informative instructional videos and guides on different water-friendly farming practices you can use on your farm to help protect water quality in nearby rivers and streams, as well as benefit your farm business.