Cattle water usage

Itryhard

Hi I have about 30 to 40 cattle at any time. Water usage is becoming an increasing cost. I'm just wondering what would be the expected usage per day for this level of stock. Currently the meter is running at about 1800 litres per day. I'm trying to understand of I may have a leak?

Ten Pin

Tie up the float valve in the troughs and see how much water is left after a few hours.

Close all taps and valves and see if meter dial moves or not.

Turn off water at meter and check for suction from a tap, that would indicate a leak somewhere. Alternatively, connect a hose onto a garden tap, put the other end of the hose in a bucket of water, if the level in bucket drops....leak.

Whichever tap you check for suction, make sure there is no feed from a higher source such as tank in the attic etc

Lime Tree Farm

According to Teagasc daily water need is 15 litres per 100 kg. I believe a cow needs 120 litres a day.

Mr..

What size are the cattle? During the summer i had 11 cows drink 1000 liters in roughly 24 hours.

DBK1

A few years ago I had land rented with no water but a deep enough drain running through it. I’d 2 x 1,000 litre IBC’s on a trailer and I used to pump the water up into them and they were connected to a trough in the ground.

There was about 25 cattle probably averaging 450-500kgs grazing it. In wet weather they’d get the whole week out of the 2 tanks. In warm dry weather they’d scarcely get 2 days.

dmakc

How much per litre extra is it compared to say 3 years ago? Isn't there some cap in place?