Calculate daily water for animals
Animals often use more water than the household garden. Their demand must be added to your water system design before you size tanks and pumps.
How
- List head counts by class (laying hens, lactating ewes, dry goats and so on).
- Multiply by per-head daily rates from a sourced table. Examples (Ontario typical values): laying hen about 0.25 L, gestating meat ewe 5.25 L, lactating ewe with lambs 10 L, medium horse 32.5 L, finishing pig 9 L, gestating rabbit doe 0.35 L per day.
- Adult sheep and goats need about 2 to 3 US gallons (7.6 to 11.4 L) a day per University of Wisconsin Extension.
- Add a hot weather factor. Agriculture Victoria gives summer figures well above average, for example 10 L versus 6 L for an adult dry sheep, and 49 L versus 35 L for a grazing horse.
- Use the calculator in this module, then add the total to the water module demand and choose how many days of stored reserve you want.
Do these first
Sources
- Water requirements of livestock (Factsheet 23-023). Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA), accessed 2026-11
- Water requirements for livestock. Agriculture Victoria, Feeding Livestock, accessed 2026-11
- Managing Sheep and Goats on Pasture. University of Wisconsin Extension, accessed 2026-11