Take Home Messages

• Abundant, high quality drinking water is the most important essential nutrient for your dairy cows. If water nutrition (quality and/or quantity) is an issue, you and your cows have a big problem! • Based on analyses of over 200 ‘suspect ’ drinking water samples from across the U.S. in the last 10 years the most common water quality problems are high iron and high anion contents that can affect cow health and performance. • The only way to know for sure if drinking water in your dairy has excess concentrations of iron (greater than 0.3 ppm) or anions (sulfate + chloride; greater than 1,000 ppm) is to have water samples analyzed periodically at a reputable laboratory. • Procedures for sampling and a few certified laboratories are listed at