Most camels and their cousins, alpacas and llamas, have a reputation for being somewhat irritable and belligerent; thats backed up with occasional bouts of spitting, biting and cantankerous behaviour. They have been domesticated for a few thousand years, but they still seem to have a lofty sense of dignity despite humans trying to break their spirit. The noble camel has endured being a beast of burden and even a racing animal. But becoming a dairy animal is a work in progress as patient folks who handle them have found out since they were first tamed. Humans have milked or tried to milk camels for thousands of years; the milk is particularly nutritious and a protein source in many middle east and African societies to this day. The fact that massive camel dairy operations have sprung up would indicate that camel milk is still popular within the middle easts urbanized community and has a growing interest in other parts of the world. Camel dairy operations have started up in the USA and Australia to supply new markets, but they are modest in size. The biggest hurdle is trying to turn the camel into an efficient dairy animal with ever-increasing regular milk production assisted by mechanical handling. Thats a description of the typical bovine dairy animal of today.From a dairy perspective, the camel cow is genetically 200 years behind the average bovine dairy cow. The camel is nowhere near as docile, cooperative, nor as remotely productive as a modern dairy cow. Thats the result of longtime intensive selection as none of the other milked species started out as happy, productive dairy animals. However, modern Western-style camel dairy operations are making progress through a genetic selection process, camel training and unique camel milking and handling equipment. Some of the large middle east camel dairy operations employ highly skilled professionals that guide production increases.Interestingly, a small tribal group in Northern Kenya who are highly dependent on camel milk has, through selection, created a higher milk yielding strain of camel, so it can be done. The one fast-track system to a better milking camel cow is through mass selection. In the middle east and Australia, they have access to literally hundreds of thousands of local camel cows, both wild and captive. That enables them through a process of elimination to find the one cow in a hundred that might make a good docile camel dairy cow for a commercial dairy operation. However, selection would seem to be the easy part; its the milking part where it gets more complicated. Unlike other milking species like goats, sheep and bovines, the camel does not easily let down its milk; it needs significant stimulation and then only produces at intervals. In traditional settings, the presence of a camel cows calf provides the stimulation, and a person then hand milks the cow. Considering the camels cranky nature, that alone would seem to be a dangerous and haphazard process, never mind the food safety and sanitation concerns. Clearly, that wont work in a commercial dairy operation where thousands of camels have to be milked twice a day. Hence the big sophisticated operators in the middle east have developed protocols and equipment that eliminates most calf stimulation. Still, they must be using some sort of method to keep milk production up on a regular and consistent basis. All of that would seem to be transferable to a potentially large operation in Alberta, but a reliable source of camels would be needed. The other part is the huge capital investment, one of the largest middle east dairies started with an investment of $20 million and now has over 500 employees. Granted, this large operator controls camel milk from production to processing to worldwide marketing. It must be profitable as these large operations continue to expand in the middle east. A substantial commercial camel dairy operation in North America would have some advantages. Firstly, there is seemingly a large local market to absorb camel milk. Secondly is camel feed. The big outfits in the middle east import large quantities of costly alfalfa hay and other feedstuffs from Australia and North America to provide consistent quality feed to produce a steady supply of milk. Mammals, in general, produce surplus milk only through excess fat and protein consumption. But feed and markets arent enough of an advantage its finding enough of those darned cranky camel cows to milk. More next time. Will Verboven is an ag opinion writer and ag policy advisor.

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Cranky camels make difficult dairy cows part two but technology and genetics are making some headway - Brooks Bulletin