permaculture

[Judith Hanna <jehanna@gn.apc.org>]

how do you potty-train the cows from defecating in the creek 
>during the grazing season?....
>
Well, in our part of south west Australia, the answer would be to fence the
grazing back from the creek, to keep the cows out and protect the bankside
vegetation from grazing and hoofs at the same time as protecting water
quality.

Water for stock to drink would be pumped into troughs in the grazing
paddock, from a dam, probably powered by a windmill possibly combined with
siphon gravity feed. Float valves control water level in the trough.

The dams would not generally be on the creek itself, but hillside earth
dams filled by run-off during the rainy winter, possibly with wing channels
to funnel run-off into the dam. It is basically the sort of system that
Mollison illustrates in the Design Manual (probably in the chapter on dry
lands management) -- and is the system in normal use by conventional farmers.

Does this sound at all applicable to your land?
Judith Hanna
jehanna@gn.apc.org
15 Jansons Rd, Tottenham, London N15 4JU