The Benefits of Using Raw Milk as a Natural Soil Supplement or Fertilizer

Reader Contribution by Steve Judge
Published on September 11, 2014
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My little hill farm in Royalton, Vermont—host to the Bob-White Systems micro dairy—is housed on 40 acres of badly-abused land. When my wife Wendy and I bought the farm in 2001, most of the old pasture had grown in or been stripped for gravel. Up until the early ’90s, the land served as a junkyard and the last stop for totaled cars. Needless to say, the land was in bad shape and needed rehabilitation.

Since Bob-White Systems is a research facility, we do not sell the milk that is produced on site. We drink what we can and give the rest away as barter (i.e., milk to neighbors raising pigs in exchange for pork). Still, there is plenty left over. A few years ago I got wind of research being done exploring the benefits of using raw milk as fertilizer. Early reports were favorable, and I finally got around to trying it myself last summer. Here is what happened—and why I am a convert to this natural method of fertilizing my pastures.

How to Use Raw Milk as a Soil Ammendment

I bought a 40-gallon three point hitch sprayer (like this one from Demco) that fits onto my tractor and started spreading the raw milk on my pastures. I try to spread in the evening in order to slow the evaporation process but, in reality, I spread the milk whenever I had time. Since I have a 30- gallon bulk tank, I spread 30 gallons of milk at a time. This takes about twenty minutes of actual spray time. At first, I had concerns that the smell of the milk would bother our neighbors. Luckily, it didn’t; there was no smell. And, the cows had no objection to grazing a pasture recently sprayed with milk. For reference: They object to grazing on pastures where manure has been recently spread.

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