Farm water

Farm water, also known as agricultural water, is water committed for use in the production of food and fiber. On average, 80 percent of the fresh water withdrawn from rivers and groundwater is used to produce food and other agricultural products. Farm water may include water used in the irrigation of crops or the watering of livestock.

It becomes difficult to relate water use to economics, however, water is one of the most fundamental parts of the global economy. It has been shown, that in areas without healthy water resources or sanitation services that economic growth cannot be sustained. Without access to clean water, nearly every industry would suffer, most notably, would be agriculture. As water scarcity grows as a global concern, food security is also brought into consideration. A recent example of this could be the drought in California—it is projected that for every $100 spent on foods from this state, a consumer should expect to pay up to $15 additionally.

and meat production have one of the largest water footprints of the agricultural industry. Taking nearly 1,800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef and 576 gallons for pork. For reference, it only takes about 108 gallons of water to harvest one pound of corn. Livestock production is also one of the most resource intensive agricultural outputs. This is largely due to their large feed conversion ratio. Livestock's large water consumption may also be attributed to the amount of time it takes to raise an animal to slaughter. Again, in contrast to corn, which grows to maturity in about 100 days. This adds an extra 995 days of water to grow cattle. The global "food animal" population is just over 20 billion creatures, with 7+ billion humans, this equates to about 2.85 animals per human.

The beef and dairy industries are the most lucrative branches of the U.S. agricultural industry, however, they are also the most resource intensive. To date, beef is the most popular of the meats; the U.S. alone produced 25.8 billion pounds in 2013. In this same year, 201.2 billion pounds of milk were produced. These cattle are mostly raised in centralized animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. On average, a mature cow will consume anywhere from seven to twenty-four gallons of water a day; cows that are lactating require about twice as much water. The amount of water that cattle may drink in a day also depends upon the temperature.
Cattle have a feed conversion ratio of 6:1, for every six pounds of food consumed, the animal should gain one pound. Thus, there is also a substantial "indirect" need for water in order to grow the feed for the livestock. Growing the amount of feed grains necessary for raising livestock accounts for 56 percent of the U.S water consumption. Of a 1,000 pound cow, only 430 pounds make it to the retail markets. This 18 percent loss, creates an even greater demand for cattle, being that CAFOs must make up for this lost profitable weight, by increasing the amount of cows that they raise.

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