Is Milk Good for Soil?

Hey ya'll, I am trying to revive an area that used to be an old horse dry lot and repurpose for sheep and goats. The ground in this area, which is about 1.5 acres is very hard and compacted and mostly dock, dandelion, creeping Charlie and a few others you'd expect to see in those soil conditions. There are small patches of grass beginning to show but the growth has been very slow and certainly not enough to sustain animals. I have been attempting the chop and drop method the last few years to encourage more growth but it just doesn't seem to be moving the needle much.

My question is: As I currently have both a dairy cow and a couple goats in milk, will spraying this area with a diluted milk solution help significantly or is it really not that effective? (The idea came from the Keeping a Family Milk Cow book, Grohman, where she talks about spraying the cows on pasture with diluted milk as fertilizer. Are there success stories regarding this? Thanks.

I think milk would largely be good for soil and plant growth. Lactobacillus in the milk is a core constituent of EM (effective microbes) which is excellent for soil. Lactobacillus also greatly reduces mildew pressure and other detrimental fungi on foliage. It would provide calcium and other beneficial nutrients that one could look up in the USDA nutrient profile for cow or goat milk. Like any input, it would likely have diminishing returns with continued additional use.

I would speculate its most effective and efficient use longterm would be feeding young ungulates who help “chop and plop” the digested, inoculated vegetation along with the milk they consume. I have read ungulate milk also be used beneficially as up to 10% of the diet for other mammals. I would also bet your local food pantry would appreciate the donation, and perhaps a local family with growing kids would be happy help with your work in return for the milk. I would generally try to find any ways I could stack it’s functions.

Yes, milk is good for the soil!

Adam said, Raw milk sprays are a common practice in modern Biodynamics. 'What' is does is improve the health of the vegetation it is sprayed on. 'Why' is a bit more of a mystery, I sure dont know. Milk sprays are good for any degraded pasture, not sure about overgrazed specifically, that would indicate a need for rest. Milk sprays are also used in instances of plant sickness. Interestingly enough, I am familiar with milk sprays and their beneficial effects, but have never used them. For whatever reason, I have never really had plant pest or sickness problems. And my pastures have never been degraded in any way. But dilute raw milk sprays, along with dilute raw honey sprays are well accepted for their health boosing qualities when applied to growing plants and soil.

https://permies.com/t/24496/science-biodynamic-gardening

Here are a couple of other threads you or other folks might find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/53886/cast-milk

https://permies.com/t/4291/Raw-milk-foiliar-feed-soil

Hi Krista,
It sounds like you are trying to revive the area in order to put the animals on it? Could I suggest using the animals to help revive it? Even if you have to feed some hay while in that area, the process of having it trampled, nibbled, and pooped on by the animals will help restore the pasture. I would guess faster than spraying milk, but I don't have anything to back that up with.