Watering Cattle with the Sun Watering Cattle with the Sun by Bill Turner photography by Cliff White Solar pumping devices can keep cattle out of streams.
Rivers are the primary source of drinking water for half of Missouri's population.
We also use our 53,000 miles of streams for watering livestock, which provide us with dairy and meat products. We need the stream to water cattle, just as we need clean water for drinking, recreation and industry. But benefits of the food supply to society don't come without a cost. Cities use rivers to carry away sewage, and factories and mines sometimes discharge their wastes to streams. Cattle sometimes pollute streams, though not by design.