Raw Milk III
Published in Stockman Grass Farmer October, 2010
By Ralph Voss
Does raw milk affect brix levels?
Does raw milk affect brix levels? I think it is fair to say that in most instances the application of
raw milk on pastures has caused brix levels to rise. However, the results leave us with more questions
than answers.
There is no question that on our farm here in central Missouri, a May 28 application of milk
produced an extra 700 pounds of grass per acre in 28 days, while at the same time greatly reducing soil
compaction. After 28 days, however, the brix level in grass sprayed with raw milk was no higher than
grass growing on untreated soil.
Since June 25, when the extra grass growth was measured, I have run a number of brix tests.
Most of those tests showed that brix levels went up where milk had been sprayed. Another observation
was that the longer the interval between spraying milk and measuring brix, the higher the brix. This is
the opposite of the findings of a man who finishes cattle on the Texas-New Mexico border. We’ll get to
that story in a minute.
Before we go any further let’s consider two other factors – the method used to remove the juice
from the grass and the time of year.
This year I started measuring brix in March and much to my surprise I found fescue that tested
as much as 8. Seldom did it drop below 6. We had never seen brix levels like this before, but we had
never before tested this early. Orchard grass, which I would have thought would be higher than fescue,
never got above a 2. By the end of April, however, the brix in the fescue dropped to 4 and 5 and by midMay was 2 and 3. Note that I did not spray any milk until May 28, so these numbers are totally
unaffected by the milk. Also keep in mind the juice tested in the March through mid-May period was
extracted with a garlic press.
What caused the brix to be relatively high (at least for us) in the early spring? No idea. And
then why would the brix drop off so much? Not a clue. It is easy to see, however, why an old cow can
gain 200 pounds in the blink of an eye when the grass comes on in the spring.
Prior to June all juice was squeezed with a garlic press. In June I started using a wheat grass juicer,
which pulverizes the grass in removing the liquid. At that time I also started using a Vise Grip that had
been modified to squeeze out the juice. I mentioned this in last month’s story, but those who did not
read that story need to understand that when I tested perennial ryegrass in July, the liquid squeezed by
a garlic press measured 5, while juice extracted by the Vise Grip tested 10 and juice from the juicer came
in at 14.
Getting back to the brix of the early spring fescue that measured 8, with a juicer this may well
have been a 12 or higher. I think we probably need to use something along the lines of a juicer so we
are extracting as many nutrients as possible. But the most important thing is to use the same
implement. We can’t switch back and forth between the garlic press, the Vise Grip and the juicer.
Prior to Aug. 19, the best brix found on our farm was from fescue collected in a field where hay
was removed May 26 and milk was sprayed May 28. At 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 10 with the temperature at 96
degrees, the fescue tested 15. To show the variation in test results, fescue taken the next day from a
different field that had been sprayed with milk tested 7.5. This latter fescue came from a field that was
grazed twice before being sprayed with milk. The fescue that tested 15 had been sprayed 2-1/2 months
earlier while the fescue that tested 7-1/2 had been sprayed 5 weeks earlier
I would not have thought that our fescue could test 15. Until Aug. 19, three days before I sent this story
off to Allan Nation, we had never hit 15 with any other kind of grass. On the 19th, however, we tested
Johnson grass from a portion of a field that had been sprayed with milk and it tested 15, while in a
nearby portion that was not sprayed the Johnson grass came in at 12. This is better than anything we
had seen with our Johnson grass earlier this year, when we topped out at 10.
We have had very hot weather in August. Could that be part of the reason the brix is higher?
Let’s now take a look at a situation near the Panhandle area of Texas that should really get your
attention.
Harold Koehn is a grazier with a dryland operation in the Panhandle and three pivots just across the
state line in New Mexico. Koehn produces beef for customers that want a highly-finished product. The
challenge for Koehn is to keep his animals growing in the extreme heat of a Panhandle summer.
When he read about raw milk, Koehn decided to apply it through his pivots. To his delight the brix of
switchgrass jumped from 5 to 7 in 21 days and Indiangrass jumped from 4 to 7. The cool season grasses
enjoyed an even greater response as meadow brome went from 3 to 8. Better yet, his average daily
gains took off.
In the week before he first applied milk, his average daily gain was less than one-third pound per day. In
the first week after he sprayed milk on June 19, Koehn saw his animals drop 2.69 pounds per day, but in
weeks two and three they gained 4.47 and 5.85 pounds per day, respectively, and things appeared to be
falling into place. But that wasn’t to be.
After three weeks things fell apart. The brix of the grass dropped precipitously. The switchgrass, for
example, dropped from a 7 to a 2 and some of the brome went from 10 to 5. The cattle that had gained
5.85 pounds per day the week before dropped 4.77 pounds per day the following week.
Koehn decided to make a second application of milk and did so on July 17 and things turned around.
The brix levels jumped almost immediately and went to new highs and the cattle, after two weeks of
losses, gained 9.58 pounds per day between July 29 and Aug. 7. Then history repeated itself. Three
weeks after the second application, animal performance toppled and as this story is wrapped up, Harold
Koehn has decided he has no choice but to spray milk every three weeks.
When you consider Koehn’s situation keep this in mind. He is working with large cattle. Cows run to
1,600 pounds and steers to 1,400. Also, the juice was extracted with what Koehn describes as a
homemade, heavy-duty garlic press. On Aug. 14, switchgrass that measured 12 with the garlic press
tested 17 when the juice was extracted with an old hand-crank meat grinder. That same day, using the
same instruments, meadow brome tested 11 and 16 and alfalfa 16 and 21.
Harold Koehn is willing to discuss his experiences with anyone that wants to contact him. His phone
number is 806-333-2043 and his email address is haroldsharonkoehn@agapemail.com
One of the most frequently-asked questions about raw milk is: How often does it need to be sprayed.
That and a whole host of questions remain to be answered. By the time you read this, I hopefully will
have given most of our pastures a fall application of milk, including sea mineral and fish and possibly
other amendments. Sept. 15 is a good fall target date in this area. I intend to do the same thing next
spring – around March 15. I would hope that with time and proper grazing practices, spraying can be
eliminated or at least greatly reduced.
One other suggestion: If you are interested in using raw milk, you have all winter to work on your plan,
which hopefully will include some experimentation. Do something imaginative and then share your
results with SGF readers.