🌾 Drinking water
A milking cow drinks ≈70–140 L of water a day: no water, no milk.
Drinking water is clean water that is safe to drink. No water, no milk. A dairy cow drinks about 70–140 litres of water a day. Exactly how much depends on her milk yield, how much feed she eats, the salt in her diet and the weather. According to New Mexico State University, a large cow giving about 18 kg of milk in cool weather drinks about 70 litres. A cow giving about 45 kg in hot weather drinks about 135 litres. In extreme heat, the need for water grows even more.
Cows do not drink evenly through the day. They drink a third to half of their daily amount in the first hour after milking. They drink fast — up to 15 litres a minute. So farms have many water troughs: about one for every 15–20 cows. Cows prefer water at a moderate temperature, not ice-cold.
Clean water matters too. Water that is too salty, too many nitrates or sulphates, and blooms of blue-green algae harm the animals' health. Salty water, for example, lowers milk yield. And if a cow simply gets less water, her milk drops quickly and sharply.
How it connects to milk
🌾 Drinking water → waters → 🐄 Cow → gives → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Waters
- 🐄 Cow
Frequently asked questions
How much water does a cow drink a day?
A dairy cow drinks about 70–140 litres. Cows with a high milk yield drink more, and so do cows in hot weather.
Why does a cow need so much water?
Milk is mostly water. The more milk a cow gives, the more she needs to drink: by New Mexico State University's formula, almost an extra kilogram of water for every kilogram of milk.