By defining new Bryant-type vector fields for foliations on a Riemannian manifold we find necessary and sufficient conditions that a foliation produces $p$-harmonic morphisms. Two applications are given. First, we characterize one-parameter conformal actions using $p$-harmonic morphisms. Then we classify $p$-harmonic morphisms on a constant curvature space with one-dimensional fibres by studying bi-minimal distributions. We also give a description of all conformal foliations which have minimal fibres on a Riemannian manifold in terms of $p$-harmonic morphisms.