Yesterday as I walked about in the heat with my hose making sure animals had water to stand in and cold water in their troughs I began to wonder about how much water I was using. How much water is needed to run a sustainable, organic farmy.
So I did a little research.
Daisy (milking dairy cow) will consume between 30 and 40 gallons of water a day. It takes 4 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of milk. She produces over 7 gallons a day.
Queenie (beef heifer) will drink 15 – 20 gallons a day. The steer will drink the same. It takes 3 gallons of water to produce one hamburger pattie. Though pound by pound chicken takes massively less water than beef. Hmm. The chickens will drink about a pint each a day.
Mama (a lactating ewe) will drink 2-3 gallons a day and the other sheep at least 1 gallon.
.Why is there a lamb on my verandah again! She was given a bottle of water and sent back to her flock.
All our animals are on green grass so they need less water than a dry feedlot animal. An animal on a dry diet on a hot day needs more. But already we are using a lot of water.
But how about this! It takes 518 gallons of water to make each tire for your car whether it is an electric car or not. I am not even going to tell you how many gallons it takes to make a whole car, it is astronomical.
The pigs will drink 1/2 a gallon a day. And my pigs will throw huge amounts of water about in play but we are not counting Water Play! 
It takes 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton for your jeans. So wear them until they are worn out!
The plastic bottle containing your bottled water takes 1 1/2 gallons of water to make. Thankfully you and I do not buy bottled water, we filter it ourselves. But how much water and oil was needed to make the filtering jug. And the filter! Now don’t start me on oil.. back to water.
.A hive of bees will drink about a quart of water a day. By yesterday afternoon this dripping tap was heaving with bees. Cooling the hive was a priority for them yesterday.
But what about a pound of organic lettuce? 23 gallons of water. This includes the growing and the processing.
It takes 3 gallons of water to produce one organic tomato!
2847 gallons for a pound of chocolate.. oh dear.. well I never much liked chocolate anyway. Though this figure seemed inflated so I checked it with three different sources. And it seems right. The cocoa bean must be a thirsty plant.
Now for the kicker: 2, 100 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. Though around here corn is not irrigated. But many many corn and soy crops are irrigated across the country.
What about an apple? Or a head of brocolli. Oh dear.
As I write this I have already turned the morning sprinkler on in the vege garden. So it waters before the sun comes up to evaporate most of it. Two gardens are watered each day. They are on a four day rotation to encourage deep roots. But I have found estimates of 240 gallons – 600 gallons per hour using a sprinkler. We use well water. Good cold water from deep in the earth.
I guess I have some work to do as to conserving water on the farmy.
That is what happens when it is too hot to work outside. I get to depress myself with numbers. However you know how I feel. The world wide water shortage problem is too big for me. So I shall work on my small solveable problems. By growing my own and working hard to use less water. We can only do what we can do. That is a stupid sentence but it is true.
Still. It takes a lot of water to keep a cow.
Good morning. It was hot yesterday but there was a breeze and it only reached 100. I discovered (now that we have discussed how much water I am wasting,) that if I weed in the spray of the sprinkler I can work for longer and the weeds come out easier!! Bad water girl!
I opened the barn for all the animals to come and go but they scorned the barn and stood under the trees instead. Of course the sheep were allowed to go into their root cellar and were not seen all day. All except Minty of course. So that was a lesson learned and the big barn doors are closed again to keep it cool in there for the baby animals.
Today is dawning dreadfully hot. Humid and still. It might rain. But then again it may not. So no holding our breaths!
Have a good day.
celi
ps A gallon equals = 3.78 litres.
The Kitchen's Garden 
68 responses to “Water, water everywhere, give me a drop to drink”
Wow. I wonder how many gallons of water I use to wash wool. I try to re-use the rinse water on plants or to soak the next fleece, but it’s high I’m sure :-(.
We are horribly hot here and the humidity is kicking in today.
The humidity is the killer i think.. I also use gallons of water each day to flush the milking machine and clean the buckets and pots. I think once we are aware of it we try to cut corners in other areas.. hopefully.. c
And once that water cools you can reuse it for something else!
I never knew bees drank water. Interesting picture and bits of info. Stay hydrated out there today, Miss c. t
Morning Miss T! c
Keep to the gallons – the litre conversion is even more frightening 🙂 I think us ‘townies’ waste even more water just because its much easier to access 😦 Turn on a tap and leave it running without any thought as to where it is coming from. I wish I had well water, our water is so full of chlorine and other chemicals you can smell it in the next room when the tap is opened. Laura
Morning Laura, that chlorine has such a potent smell, my well water smells like sulphur!! c
Mind boggling. But then maybe you should subtract the water content of wee and sweat that go back into the earth or the atmosphere, ultimately to flow back or fall back as rain. I’m trying to make you feel better 🙂
That lamb should be called Mischief!
You are right about Minty, she is such a sweet naughty thing, and yes there must be an equation about water re absorption as well as water waste, I wonder where we find those figures and what that is called c
Reblogged this on So Far From Heaven and commented:
A worthy read. J
Thank you Old Jules.. if i remember rightly you live in a very arid environment, you would not take water for granted like I often do.. c
Wow – those are some eye-opening numbers. I’ve said before how it’s easy for me to take water for granted – in fact, to be constantly moaning about how much water there is here in Scotland! Even today, it is raining heavily. We are so fortunate and never have a drought, even when England are suffering we are always replete. If only there was a way to ship it around the world without using up more water than we’d be providing. Hm.
Well I for one am thrilled that Scotland is soaked, as long as someone has bubbling brooks and full rivers. In NZ the rivers are being sucked dry by horticulture and the dairy industry.. water is a concern.. c
It’s a sobering thought in a dry climate isin’t it.
These are some things we do to conserve water; like you we have long hot summers.
When I plant trees I place a length of irrigation tubing (ag pipe) at an angle that extends to the plants roots. When you water in the hot weather it flows from the surface to the roots through all the small holes. For fruit trees I use three pipes at intervals around the tree.
Planting fruit trees close to the margins of a swale also gives them a regular deep soaking when it rains. The vegetables are planted more deeply and exist on much less water…….drip irrigation and heavy mulching in summer. e.
These are excellent suggestions, I shall definitely adopt the pipe for the tree roots when i plant the next wave of fruit trees.. very good thank you.. c
WOW!!! You have me thinking about how much water we use a day (on a not farmy) – I fell quite guilty right now as I love a nice deep bath every evening, let along anything else!
🙂 Mandy
Water is definitely life. At least you have smaller gallons than us, the numbers are boggling! 🙂
Wow, great informative post! Awe that picture of Minty on the porch is a classic – I love it! Well the heat and humidity have reached us in Canada – 100+F yesterday and even hotter today!
Have a great day Celi and stay cool….ish!
Hello! I just happened to stumble upon your blog this morning. I’ve really enjoyed your photos, and “Why is there a lamb on my veranda?” absolutely cracked me up.
Welcome Julie, lovely to meet you! c
I clicked “Like” but I don’t like what I hear. I guess there’s no point in worrying.
Your comment about the bees and water reminds me of what my son did yesterday. I had filled a backyard birth bath, and there he was, dumping out the water. “Don’t do that!” I screeched. “It’s for the birds and butterflies.”
“It’s a mosquito breeding grounds,” he said. (He is right.) “And have you ever seen a bird or butterfly there?”
“No, but I saw a bee at the bird bath this morning.”
End of story.
Too funny. Did he fill it up again? c
Just think of the frog and bird population your sustaining with the mosquito’s
weirdly we just don’t have many mossies, not like in st louis or NZ. I fill the barrels so they are almost emptied each day by the animals, there is no standing water but still it has always surprised me! c
Good morning! Amazing how much water it takes to do even the simplest things. I’ve thought about the obvious ones…brushing your teeth with the water on, washing dishes, watering the garden…but who would have thought that you need water to build a car? And that lettuce would need so much? Or even that a dairy cow would drink so much per day! Wow!
I’m pretty sure Minty likes to be on the Veranda because she knows full well that YOU are her momma! 😉
Have a lovely day and try to stay cool! ~ April
Good morning Celi … This is imply a fabulous post! Well done and cheers!