2.7- Water: Print

The amount of water a cow should drink each day depends on it’s age, milk production, consumption of dry matter and weather conditions.

Calves 5 – 15 litres / day
Heifers 15 – 35 litres / day
Cows :
* dry 30 – 60 litres / day
* 10kg milk/day yield 50 – 80 litres / day
* 20kg milk/day yield 70 -100 litres / day
* 30kg milk/day yield 90 -150 litres / day



In agroecological livestock farming, producing more or less milk depends on maintaining the nutritive and hygienic qualities of milk as well as fulfilling all the other objectives of this farming model (section 3). The aim is not to just achieve high milk yields per cow and, thus, water consumption should be between 50 and 100 litres per day per lactating cow:

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