I hate to say this, but cattle grazing and water bodies haven’t been a good mixture for the last century or so. People have come to realize this, from government bodies to nature conservation groups and general citizens.

While I’ll cover that in one of the subpages below, the simple fact is that poor grazing management has resulted in too many riparian areas being severely damaged. Wetlands, namely ponds, sloughs, areas along creeks and rivers, and other areas have seen such damage.

Severe trampling along the edges and overgrazing/overbrowsing vegetation have been major issues. Another is with animals wandering into the water and defecating and urinating in the water, contaminating water and reducing water quality.

(We also can’t ignore the concerns people have with runoff and leaching from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) going into water bodies.)

Lately, though, the latest major issue over water is when some scientific research came out detailing the water usage (or “water footprint”) of beef and dairy. This has led numerous anti-meat/anti-dairy organizations to raise awareness among the public eye that, allegedly, beef and dairy production “use” a sh!t-ton of water. It’s not just for animals to drink, but for the crops grown to feed the animals that are raised for milk production or slaughtered for beef.

It’s all more fuel added to the fire of the anti-ruminant crusade.