Assessment of Water Usage and Consumption of Livestock Enterprises in Bursa Region

Today, it is necessary to be more careful in water usage due to increased pollution in ground water and negative effects of climatic conditions on water resources. farmers engaged in animal husbandry should enable to obtain drinking and utility water for animals by easily, in a healthy and economical way, and farmer’s awareness of water consumption should be increased. in this study, the annual water consumption of the animal barns was determined according to the animal existence in the bursa region. according to tuik 2017 data, there are 201 288 head cattle, 472467 head small sheep and approximately 1.3 million head poultry in bursa province, and their total annual water requirement is 8.65 million m^3. there is 44% increased on water consumption from animal production compared to 2007. in this study, the amounts of annual water demand of 4 different dairy cattle operations with 20, 50, 100 and 200 head capacities have been calculated because water has an important effect on milk yield especially in dairy cattle. the water consumption of these enterprises was respectively 648 m^3, 1620 m^3, 3240 m^3 and 6480 m^3 per year. the annual drinking and utility water costs of the enterprises are calculated as 2 722 ₺, 6 804 ₺, 13 608 ₺ and 27 216 ₺. in addition, drinking water samples were taken from 15 dairy cattle barns in nilüfer district of bursa province and were analysed for water quality.