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Water Science Pictures
Livestock water use: Cows cooling their heels

You probably know that in the arid West wherever there is water at the surface you tend to find growing vegetation (next time you're in a plane look down and see how there always seems to be green along the river beds). This picture suggests that maybe livestock congregate near exposed water, too.

Water is needed to raise the country's livestock, be it cows, chickens, horses, or rabbits. In 2000, the United States used about 1,760 million gallons each day for livestock water use purposes (data was only compiled for a selected set of States), such as drinking, cleaning, and food production.

The states that used the most water in 2000 for livestock needs were California, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa.

Care to guess how much water a cow drinks per day?

Information courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture