A study was conducted in order to evaluate cattle behavior, stream bank erosion and water quality due to the installation of off-stream water sources for grazing cattle as an alternative to stream bank fencing. The study was located on two commercial cow-calf operations in southwest Virginia which utilized rotational grazing. The presence of an off-stream water source for grazing cattle greatly reduced the negative impact which grazing cattle have upon stream bank erosion and water quality. Field observations of cattle behavior indicated that cattle preferred to drink from an off-stream water source over that of an adjacent stream 92% of the time. The installation of an off-stream water source reduced the total time which cattle spend within the stream area by 58% and the amount of stream bank erosion by 76%.

Due to the installation of off-stream water sources, concentrations of total suspended solids, total nitrogen, ammonium, sediment-bound nitrogen, total phosphorus and sediment-bound phosphorus, were reduced by 90%, 54%, 70%, 68%, 81% and 75%, respectively. Concentrations of fecal coliform and fecal streptococci decreased by 51% and 77% when an off-stream water source was available for grazing cattle. Lastly, an economic analysis of the data indicated that the cost of developing off-stream water sources was considerably less than that of implementing six fenced stream bank buffer zone scenarios on the two farms.