By Herbert Musoke
An adult healthy dairy cow requires 70-80 liters of safe and clean water daily during the dry season. However, a heavy milker should take 120 litres a day.
This is because milk contains about 85% water hence two and half liters of water is required for every liter of milk produced. Therefore, you need to have a constant and readily available supply of water on your farm such that your animals will have water all the time and also make it easy for your workers.
Yohan Verhoek, a nutritionist explains that safe and clean water is key to optimizing milk production, cow health and overall farm profitability.
He advises farmers that for better milk production, they should make sure all animals have sufficient access to clean and safe water every day because it is a key element for the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the cows.
“Water helps your animals to break down feed particles, and aids in the movement of feed to the digestive system through enabling the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream. With adequate water intake, cows enhance feed intake and nutrient utilization leading to an increase in milk production and overall farm performance,” he says.
This is one of the reasons why many dairy farmers have failed to optimize their animals’ milk production capacity because they only provide a few litres of water to quench the thirst and animals’ survival, leaving little water for milk production, he explains.
