If you've ever flown in an airplane over a very dry location, such as the western United States, you've probably noticed that you can pick out where the rivers and streams are by looking for the green vegetation that tends to grow along the riverbanks. It is certainly true that wherever there is water, there are plants. This picture suggests that maybe livestock congregate near exposed water, too (wouldn't you if you had to stand out in a hot field all day?).
Care to guess how much water a cow drinks per day?
Water is needed to raise livestock, be it cows, chickens, horses, or rabbits. Livestock water use is water associated with livestock watering, feedlots, dairy operations, and other on-farm needs.This includes water for raising cows, chickens, horses, rabbits, fish, and pets, and also water used in the production of meats, poultry, eggs, and milk.
For 2000, withdrawals were an estimated 137,000 million gallons per day (Mgal/d), or 153,000 thousand acre-feet per year. Irrigation withdrawals were 40 percent of total freshwater withdrawals and 65 percent of total freshwater withdrawals for all categories excluding thermo-electric power. Surface water accounted for 58 percent of the total irrigation withdrawals. About 61,900 thousand acres were irrigated in 2000. Of this total acreage, about 29,400 thousand acres were irrigated with surface (flood) systems; 28,300 thousand acres with sprinkler systems; and 4,180 thousand acres with micro-irrigation systems. Application rates were calculated by dividing total withdrawals by irrigated acres. The average application rate was 2.48 acre-feet per acre for the United States.
In 2000, livestock water use for the 22 States reporting was about 1,760 Mgal/d. About 1,010 Mgal/d came from ground water, while about 747 Mgal/d came from surface-water sources. This includes water for livestock watering, feedlots, dairy operations, and other on-farm needs, such as cooling of facilities for the animals and products, dairy sanitation and wash down of facilities, animal waste-disposal systems, and incidental water losses.
The states that used the most water in 2000 for livestock needs (for those states that reported livestock water use) were California, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa.
[D] - Data table for the pie chart are available.
Sources and more information
• Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000, USGS Circular 1268:
• Livestock water use, 2000:
Summary | Data table, by State | National map
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wulv.html
Page Contact Information: Howard Perlman
Page Last Modified: Friday, 07-Nov-2008 15:47:10 EST
