Researchers at Oregon State University using precise tracking technology discovered that cattle spend less time in streams than prior believed. The average is between 1 and 2.5 percent of their time on the range. The five-year study was published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. The study details how the research team placed GPS collars on cows and sent them out to graze with their herds across large acreages of land in eastern Oregon. The cows’ positions were then mapped over the paths of rangeland streams across five spring-to-fall grazing seasons. They discovered that the cows went down to the water when they needed to drink or cross, but did not typically rest.

Read more on the OSU study.

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