Water Conservation is Not Just a Western State Issue

Although many of us in this area of the country tend not to worry about how much water there is unless there is a drought, which is decidedly not the case this year, water conservation is a big issue nation wide. As the population continues to grow and the water supplies do not water conservation will become an issue for everyone regardless of where they live. Even in Pennsylvania, where water is abundant, if a producer draws more than 10,000 gallons of water a day they must report that use to the state. When you figure that the average cow drinks about 30 gallons of water a day, a hundred cow dairy would use 3,000 gallons per day just in direct water intake, not including wash water and other water uses on the farm. Therefore, the reporting requirement at 10,000 gallons would cover many of the dairy farms in the state.

A recent article about water usage on dairy farms in Dairy Herd Management pointed out that dairies are often accused of high water usage, but in reality water on dairy farms is often recycled and used for 2-3 different purposes before it is used as irrigation on fields or added to manure storage. Due to the high level of water recycling that occurs on many farms and other advancements an article in the Journal of Animal Science estimates that dairy farms today use 35% of the water they used in 1944 to produce the same amount of milk. Like many other issues in agriculture we really need to do a better job of telling our side of the story.