Stock water calculator
Will the water hold out when it turns hot and dry? Add up what your stock drink on a peak summer day, see how long a full tank lasts and whether your pump or spring keeps up.
Your stock water
The supply keeps up on a hot, dry peak day on these numbers. Troughs still need to refill fast enough when a whole mob drinks at once - check them on a hot afternoon.
- Beef cattle (cows, replacements, bulls)8,250 L
150 head × 55.0 L
- Sheep (ewes, hoggets, rams)8,100 L
1,800 head × 4.5 L
- Grazing horses100 L
2 head × 50.0 L
An average day across the year: about 9,970 L.
Where the numbers come from
- Guide values: average-day and peak-day litres per head from Reasonable Stock Water Requirements: Guidelines for Resource Consent Applications (Stewart and Rout, Aqualinc / AQUAS for Horizons Regional Council, December 2007). Peak day = the highest single day in the year.
- Dairy shed: 70 L per milking cow a day for washing and milk cooling, the figure the same report lists from Dexcel and NZSFA. Sheds with plate coolers that recycle water, or green-water yard washing, can use less.
- Tank and flow: days = tank ÷ litres a day. Flow needed = litres a day ÷ (hours the supply runs × 60). Supply = your flow × 60 × hours.
These are planning figures, not a guarantee: stock need clean, cool water they can always reach, and troughs must refill quickly enough when a whole mob drinks at once. Taking water for stock drinking can be allowed without a resource consent when it has no adverse effect on the environment (Resource Management Act 1991, section 14), but regional plans set their own limits - check with your regional council before a new take, bore or dam. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. Planning feed as well? Try the feed budget calculator or the stock units calculator. Water troubles in a drought? See farm help for the Rural Support Trust.
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