Abstract
Livestock watering can represent as much as 20% of total agricultural water use in areas with intensive dairy farming. Due to an increased emphasis on water conservation for the agricultural sector, it is important to understand the current patterns of on-farm water use. This study utilized in situ water meters to measure the year-round on-farm pumped water (i.e., blue water) on a ~419 lactating cow confined dairy operation in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The average total water use for the farm was 90,253 ± 15,203 L day−1 and 33,032 m3 annually. Water use was divided into nutritional water (68%), parlour cleaning and operation (14%), milk pre-cooling (15%), barn cleaning, misters and other uses (3%). There was a positive correlation between total monthly water consumption (i.e., nutritional water) and average monthly temperature for lactating cows, heifers, and calves (R2 = 0.69, 0.84, and 0.85, respectively). The blue water footprint scaled by milk production was 6.19 L kg−1 milk or 6.41 L kg−1 fat-and-protein corrected milk (FPCM) including contributions from all animal groups and 5.34 L kg−1 milk (5.54 L kg−1 FPCM) when excluding the water consumption of non-lactating animals. By applying theoretical water conservation scenarios we show that a combination of strategies (air temperature reduction, complete recycling of milk-cooling water, and modified cow preparation protocol) could achieve a savings of 6229 m3 annually, a ~19% reduction in the total annual water use.
Highlights
In the past 100 years, agricultural production has accounted for as much as 80% of global freshwater consumption [1]
Some water savings can be achieved through reducing cow drinking by optimizing cow comfort
The largest potential for water savings observed in this study was related to improving plumbing design to collect, store and re-use cooling water
Summary
In the past 100 years, agricultural production has accounted for as much as 80% of global freshwater consumption [1]. Non-irrigation blue water use on dairy farms typically includes water consumption, milking equipment, parlour, and pipeline cleaning, washing down of the holding area, milk cooling, and temperature control [7]. Links between production and heat stress have been demonstrated previously [16] Both the consumption of dry matter (DM) and milk production decrease when the temperature humidity index (THI) was >60 [17]. Water consumption increases linearly under mild heat stress when THI exceeds 30 [17] and daily water use fluctuations are typically greater in summer months [18]. Heat stress mitigation, such as cow showers, can decrease cow body temperature by. Identify areas for blue water conservation and provide estimates of potential savings
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