Abstract
This study evaluated the impact of diet as a mitigation action to improve the water efficiency of lactating cows. An intensive pasture dairy system was considered to calculate direct and indirect water use. Group 1 was fed with a diet containing 20% crude protein content. The crude protein content of Group 2 was adjusted according to milk production, ranging from 23% to 14.5%. The total water footprints had a value of 502.4 L kg-1 fat protein corrected milk for Group 1 and 451.2 L kg-1 fat protein corrected milk for Group 2. The diet with the adjusted protein provided a reduction of 10% in the footprint value. The green water footprint was the most representative of consumption in the total value of the water footprint, 86.4% and 85.5% for Groups 1 and 2, respectively. The animals in Group 1 had a mean total drinking water consumption of 83.3 L animal-1 day-1 and those of Group 2, 80.4 L animal-1 day-1. This study demonstrated that high crude protein content in the diet provided a greater water footprint, therefore lower water efficiency. The proposed nutritional practice proved viable as a water-mitigating action, making the ratio of liters of water per liter of milk more advantageous. The results of this study could be considered a validation of a nutritional mitigation practice to improve water efficiency and could be used as best management for the dairy supply chain.
Highlights
One of the greatest present and future challenges for livestock is to remain a provider of quality food and conserve natural resources
This study demonstrated that high crude protein content in the diet, besides not producing more milk, caused a greater water footprint, lower water efficiency of the product
The manipulation of the crude protein content of the concentrate resulted in better water efficiency
Summary
One of the greatest present and future challenges for livestock is to remain a provider of quality food and conserve natural resources. This activity demands large volumes of water and has a high polluting potential as a point and no-point source. Water is one of the most important factors on a dairy farm because it is essential for livestock consumption to support milk production. This dependence may lead to more active regulation and monitoring of water use, which puts a great amount of pressure, especially financially, on farmers (Robinson et al, 2016). Nowadays studies are estimating water consumption by ruminants, but the efforts are only based on direct water use (Murphy et al, 2014; Fischer et al, 2017; Legesse et al, 2017)
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