Water management

FACT

High quality water is conserved and maintained by cattle producers.


High quality water is important to everyone. New technology is offering cattle producers innovative ways to water their cattle. Producers are experimenting with methods of encouraging less direct access by cattle to water courses.

When given the option, cattle with tend to water at sites with a solid base that provides good footing. Access ramps can be built out into the water using compacted pit run gravel. Producers can use a plastic mesh on the edge of watering sites to give cattle better footing and to decrease water siltation. Research and practical experience indicates that cattle with often choose to drink out of a water trough, rather than drink from a stream or dugout.

Some water consumption facts are:
  • 130 litres (29 gallons) to produce 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef
  • 15 litres (3.3 gallons) to make 0.1 kilogram (1/4 pound) of hamburger
  • 32 litres (7 gallons) to flush a toilet
  • 135 litres (30 gallons) for the average shower
  • 35 litres (7.7 gallons) to process one can of vegetables
  • 5,678 litres (1,249 gallons) to produce a barrel of beer
The average Canadian uses 350 litres (77 gallons) of water a day in normal living activities.

A mature beef animal will drink between 35 and 66 litres (8 to 15 gallons) of water per day, depending on the temperature. Most of the water cattle drink returns to the soil as part of the natural recycling process.

Clean water is a goal of cattle producers. Producers are voluntarily changing management practices to improve water quality for themselves and for their communities. These practices include moving wintering areas away from streams, using ridges and ditches to divert corral run off into lagoons, and sloping corrals away from water sources.

Irrigation is not widely used in Canada to produce feed for cattle. In fact, only about 1% of Canada's total farmland is irrigated.