Open lies about dairy farming

I think on farm it takes 6 litres of water to produce a litre of milk obviously more after it leaves the farm.
totally agree most water on farms stays on farm to produce food. Apart form that lost to transpiration of course.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
You don't see a problem then in Lake Mead, the reservoir behind the Hoover Dam, being at an all time low of about 23% capacity, when a significant proportion of the water used is transported hinders of miles by aquaduct to irrigate almond trees in an arid landscape.......
one of the 'ologies' I graze upon is dendrochronology.

I recall from this reading that......
Tree rings over several thousand years show that the SW states have enjoyed century long cycles of dry/wet fluctuation.
Cultures and civilisations rose and fell in time with these cycles.
Europeans arrived as a good wet spell started................if the cycles are being repeated, they are now on the downslope, heading into a long period of dry.
There are many millions of Americans living profligate lifestyles in places where the environment cannot support them...and it is apparently going to get more so.
 

jerseycowsman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cornwall
You know I'm right with you...but...

how can your water use be less than a litre per litre?
A dry South Devon cow tied in a shippon drinks 12-15 gallons a day on a dry diet, if my youthful recollections are correct.
(and i'm assured by a more acute observer that she drinks 2 quarts to a slurp..... there were long dark winter days to think about such things in days of old)
Poetic license, rainwater grows all my inputs, a borehole provides drinking water (which I didn’t include, perhaps I should?). I just worked out the mains water per litre that the parlour uses on washout
 
Location
southwest
Only question I would have is are the figures in the picture for a litre of milk bought in a supermarket and are you selling a litre of milk to the end consumer at the farm gate? If you are then that might explain the difference. CIP procedures for instance in dairy processing are pretty high water users.

Most processors use about 1 litre of water per 1 litre of milk processed/sold
 
Location
southwest
Carbon footprint figures are quite meaningless as they can be calculated in numerous ways to support any particular viewpoint you want.

For example a grazing herd in the westcountry on OAD milking with little or no winter housing will have a lot smaller footprint than a housed herd fed a lot of imported concs and milked 3x day. If you want to portray dairy farming in a bad light, quote the latter and ignore the former.

If you want to put fake milk in a good light, you just quote figures related to growing the nuts etc and ignore the high transport footprint.


There's also the question of how deep you dig into things. If the cows are fed silage, you can include the CF of the manufacture of all the machinery etc-tractors, foragers additives, plastic sheeting etc. You would, by the same token, chose to ignore the CF of turning a desert into cropping land-cultivations, irrigation set up etc etc.

Someone once said "there are lies, damned lies and statistics." Well Carbon footprint figures can be added to the list
 
I would guess your water usage as approx 1 litre for every litre of milk sent off the farm, the rest is only borrowed and goes back through the soil for re use. Meanwhile California is losing billions of litres through evaporation trying to grow almonds in near desert conditions
Even evaporated water eventually returns to the earth’s surface - it’s only borrowed.
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
Which is 79 tonnes of water per kilo if correct
Errr this just shows how social media can influence the truth;
2000 gallons per pound of almonds;
= 2000 x 4.546kg = 9092 litres per pound
= 1 pound x 2.2 = 1 kg
Therefore 9092 x 2.2 = 20,000 kg
Therefore 20 tonnes of water to produce 1 pond almonds.

Sill a huge number but different to the 79 tonnes we could easily be quoting if not careful. .
Like @jerseycowsman says , Lets at least check what we put out there and maintain our credibility.
 

Muck Spreader

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Limousin
Californian almonds use the most water to grow
Nuts are the most notorious culprit. California produces 80% of the world's almonds — 2 billion pounds a year — at a staggering cost of 2,000 gallons of water per pound of almonds.
If you want a good read on how almonds are destroying California:

 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
Errr this just shows how social media can influence the truth;
2000 gallons per pound of almonds;
= 2000 x 4.546kg = 9092 litres per pound
= 1 pound x 2.2 = 1 kg
Therefore 9092 x 2.2 = 20,000 kg
Therefore 20 tonnes of water to produce 1 pond almonds.

Sill a huge number but different to the 79 tonnes we could easily be quoting if not careful. .
Like @jerseycowsman says , Lets at least check what we put out there and maintain our credibility.
Thanks, you're dead right. Somehow I thought it was per quarter pound of almonds, not per pound.

Although some of your calculations aren't entirely clear, for instance how many almonds are there in a pond?
 

devonbeef

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon UK
If you want a good read on how almonds are destroying California:

I watched a program, where they were showing due to the overuse of the underground water system in growing areas of California , the ground has and is dropping down through drying out. I think (but needs checking)some places 30f t plus .If thats not a sign its not sustainable then i dont know what is!
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Ok guys, I want to make sure my figures are generally right before I do the NFUs job and write to the economist and grocer magazines and the BBC about all this obvious bollox that is being spouted!
Having done my carbon footprint and realising that mine and the UK average were quite low. I looked for plant milk averages and found them to be similar to UK milk! I then found this gem that was in the grocer and based on supposed world average figures compiled by 2 VEGAN scientists at Oxford. The water Use one especially Is horrendously wrong. It’s no wonder the bbc et al are so full of bullsh*t if these are the figures they are using. Can anyone point to any holes in my research, to stop me making a fool of myself?!
View attachment 991772View attachment 991771
Screenshot_20211017-192538_Drive.jpg


From NFU fact sheet
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.7%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 64 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.2%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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