New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts
Water use by New Zealand dairy farms, 1997–2000
Claire L. Flemmer
Rory C. Flemmer
Institute of Technology and Engineering
Massey University
College of Sciences
Private Bag 11222
Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
c.l.flemmer@massey.ac.nz
Abstract New Zealand dairy farms use water
for pasture
irrigation, stock drinking water and dairy shed washing. Stock drinking
water and dairy shed wash water are readily determined on a “per head”
basis, but there is limited information on the amount of water used for
pasture irrigation. In this work, a method for estimating the annual
water use for irrigation of New Zealand dairy pasture in 13 regions has
been developed using data on regional water allocation and regional
soil moisture data. The estimate of water used for irrigation was
validated by a comparison with monitored irrigation on four Canterbury
farms. Total annual water use by New Zealand dairy farms in 13 regions
was estimated over the 4-year period from 1997/98 to 2000/01 and
averaged 1017 million cubic metres per year. On average, 892 million
cubic metres (88%) of all water used by New Zealand dairy farms was
used for pasture irrigation and the remaining 125 million cubic metres
(12%) was used for stock purposes. On average, 62% of all water use
occurs in the Canterbury region. Estimated total water use remained
fairly constant for the first 2 years of the analysis. It then dropped
significantly in 1999/2000 and rose significantly in 2000/01. Since
irrigation water use is approximately seven times greater than water
use for stock, and approximately 75% of irrigated pasture area occurs
in the Canterbury region, it follows that soil moisture in the
Canterbury region has a dominant effect on the annual water use on New
Zealand dairy farms. Total annual water use on New Zealand dairy farms
was apportioned between surface and groundwater sources. On average,
approximately 72% of the 1017 million cubic metres per year total water
use came from surface water sources. The remaining 28% came from
groundwater sources.
Keywords allocation; dairy; farm;
irrigation; groundwater;
New Zealand; regional; soil moisture; surface water; water
A07023; Online publication date 29 October 2007; Received 26 March
2007; accepted 12 September 2007
New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 2007, Vol. 50:
479–489
0028–8233/07/5004–0479 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2007
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