Waters expensive

26 September 1997




Waters expensive

OXON dairy manager Neil Rowe, milking 170 cows for Marcham Farms, is questioning whether its really worth getting up in the morning to milk his cows.

On a visit to a local supermarket he noticed that bottled water costs three times as much as milk – at £2.20 for a litre of water compared with only 70p for a litre of milk.

Three times the quantity

"The average cow drinks 68 litres of water to produce 23 litres of milk. So every time I get up in the morning Im putting three times the quantity of water into the cow, to get a product which is worth a third of the price," he said.

"Think of all the effort involved in producing milk compared with water which you can suck out of the ground, has a six-month shelf life, and does not require a chill chain.

"When Milk Marque can sell milk for the same price of water then maybe well be achieving something," he added.

It takes a bit of bottle to produce milk when water cost three times as much, according to Oxon dairy manager Neil Rowe.


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