Livestock can severely trample the area. They will also deposit manure, which, during high flood periods, will be flushed into the watercourse, impairing water quality. An example of intensive livestock use is a drylot system where the area is used mainly as an exercise yard for cattle, and feed is brought in from an outside source. Field Crop Production , pp. Intensively cropping a floodplain will result in sediment, nutrients, and pesticides moving to the watercourse, contaminating surface water.
Grazing is an acceptable use of the floodplain.
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