Information sheets about options to save water in dairies

1. Holding yards

Most of the water used for the dairy each day is used in washing the yards. Typically larger dairies use around 35,000L daily whilst the smaller herringbone dairies use around 5,000L. However water use varies hugely between farms. A survey by DPI Victoria in 2005 found some farms using less than 1,000L per day whilst others used in excess of 100,000L to wash down their dairies.

Check out the links below to see how you can save water when cleaning the yards.

  Reduce waste requiring removal

• Wake-up cows first
• Reduce the time they spend on the yard
• Feed adequate fibre
• Stock handling
• Voluntary cow flow into dairy
• Mud and stone trap at laneway-yard junction

  Reduce amount of water

• Alternative (bore) water supply
• Wash section closest to the shed only
• Wash yard less frequently
• Re-use water from effluent ponds
• Divert and use rainwater from yards

  Design to help cleaning

• Concrete surface and grooving
• Yard slope
• Yard drainage
• Solids trap for re-use systems

  Equipment and technique

• Short, high volume hoses
• Hose nozzles
• Manual scrapers
• Mechanical scapers
• Gate scrapers and auto-flushing
• Hydrant wash systems
• Flood wash - riser systems
• Flood wash - tank systems

  Keeping the yard wet

• Tipping drums
• Sprinklers
• Dribble bars

2. Plate cooler and cooling towers

3. Washing vat and milking machine

4. Washing platform and dairy surfaces

5. Other areas