Fence water courses to prevent cattle access

Fencing off watercourses to prevent cattle access is recognised as one of the ‘8-Actions for Change’ within the Teagasc Better Farming for Water Campaign, and visitors to the recent Farming for a Better Future Open Day, held in Teagasc Johnstown Castle, heard of the benefits it can bring.

Cattle accessing watercourses may offer a cheap source of water, but it also results in a significant increase in deposited bed sediment, E. coli concentrations, and accumulation of phosphorus in sediment. These phosphorus reservoirs can represent a source of phosphorus to waters through release into the water column.

At the open day, results of the COSAINT project – Cattle access to watercourses: environmental and socio-economic implications – were shared. This was a five-year, inter-institutional project funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Key findings from the project show that cattle exclusion from watercourses can improve the ecological quality of watercourses in the short and long-term, and one year of full cattle exclusion resulted in improvements in deposited stream sediment, phosphorous concentrations and ecological communities.

Summary of findings:

• Improvements in water quality parameters due to cattle exclusion from watercourses were particularly apparent in relation to bed sediment mass and macroinvertebrate community health.
• Exclusion of cattle from watercourse improved the quality of environmental indicators over the short and long terms.
• Levels of deposited stream sediment and concentrations of phosphorus in the sediment were significantly reduced and improvements in macroinvertebrate communities were observed following one year of cattle exclusion.
• Improvements also persisted over a longer period of fencing, with significant improvements persisting for 10 years post fencing.

Although fencing and the exclusion of cattle from water courses brings its benefits, Teagasc researchers noted that alone it may not be sufficient to restore the ecological condition of affected rivers, and future policy could consider multiple mitigation measures that integrate with one and other. For example, fencing to exclude cattle could be coupled with targeted riparian buffer management to yield other environmental benefits, such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration, thereby achieving maximum environmental improvements.

This article was adapted for use on Teagasc Daily from the paper and board presented by Daire Ó’hUallacháin, Senior Research Officer at Teagasc, Crops, Environment and Land-Use Programme, Johnstown Castle, at the Farming for a Better Future Open Day.

For more information on the Farming for a Better Future Open Day, click here.

Learn more about Better Farming for Water – 8 Actions for Change here.