Learning to milk wild camels is just one challenge for this dairy

April 12, 2024 8:27 AM

Learning to milk wild camels is just one challenge for this dromedary dairy. When you think of camels, you probably imagine them in a desert. But in lush, green Hunter Valley paddocks, Michelle Phillips keeps 50 — and their milk is in high demand.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (10 comments total)

I guess it’s a good way to get feral camels out of the wild, if nothing else, although, as I’ve said before, cultivating invasive species has its own problems.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:53 AM on April 12

Milk is not milk. There are 5,000 species of mammal, each providing a different brew for their young. If you're planning on going into business selling exotic cheese, one place to start might be a species which approximates human milk w.r.t. key ingredients fat, protein, lactose and solids. "diff" being the sum of difference from human for fat+prot+lact. As you see from the table [TMI! alert] lifted from Animal Science, U.Illinois some years ago, cows and camels are a good place to start; reindeer and seals, not so much.

	Fat 	Prot 	Lact 	Solids 	
Human 	4.5	1.1	6.8	12.6	Diff 
Monkey 	3.9	2.1	5.9	14.5	2.5
Donkey 	1.2	1.7	6.9	10.2	4
Cow 	4.5	3.7	4.9	13.8	4.5
Camel 	4.9	3.7	5.1	14.4	4.7
Goat 	3.5	3.1	4.6	12	5.2
Horse 	1.6	2.7	6.1	11	5.2
Sheep 	5.3	5.5	4.6	16.3	7.4
Bison 	1.7	4.8	5.7	13.2	7.6
Mink 	8.0	7.0	6.9	22.6	9.5
Pig 	8.2	5.8	4.8	19.9	10.4
GinPig 	3.9	8.1	3.0	15.8	11.4
Antlop 	1.3	6.9	4	25.2	11.8
Bffalo 	10.4	5.9	4.3	21.5	13.2
Dog 	8.3	9.5	3.7	20.7	15.3
Ephant 	15.1	4.9	3.4	26.9	17.8
Dolph 	14.1	10.4	5.9	30.4	19.8
Rabbit 	12.2	10.4	1.8	26.4	22
Rat 	14.8	11.3	2.9	31.7	24.4
Aardv	12.3	13.6	2.5	?	24.6
Deer 	19.7	10.4	2.6	34.1	28.7
Reindr 	22.5	10.3	2.5	36.7	31.5
PolarB 	31.0	10.2	0.5	42.9	41.9
Whale 	34.8	13.6	1.8	51.2	47.8
Seal 	53.2	11.2	2.6	67.7	63
Max 	53.2	13.6	6.9	67.7	63
Min 	1.2	1.1	0.5	10.2	2.5

posted by BobTheScientist at 10:39 AM on April 12 [5 favorites]

Before you start getting funny, camilk.com is taken.
posted by rhizome at 12:04 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

So is dromedairy.com!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:25 PM on April 12 [7 favorites]

The list implies that someone somewhere managed to milk a polar bear. That's gotta be a fascinating story for the dinner table.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 3:11 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

I didn't even read the entire post title but now the bit of "Levitate Me" where Frank Black sings "elevator lady" over and over is stuck in my head but instead of "elevator lady" he's singing "dromedary dairy" so uh, I guess this is how things are going for me today
posted by potrzebie at 4:30 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

Mink dairy? Can't make coats, so pivot!
posted by sammyo at 10:42 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

Mink dairy? Can't make coats, so pivot!

Mink Milk? Mink milk! Milk the mink! For Mink Milk!

Mink milk Mink milk Mink milk Minkmilk Minkmilk MinkmilkMinkmilkMinkmilk



M̶̨̧̧̡̰̫͍̣̯̲͚͊͐̚ͅǐ̷̧̧̫̫̞̪͙̪̱͗̅̑͒̑̏̏̆̇̇̑̿̓̍̿͛n̷̮̳̪̱͛̌̒̉͗̏k̴̯̟̓̕m̶̧̛͔͕̊̍͂͋̈́̊͂į̵̧͖̙͙̝̱̟͔̳̺̯̰̪͖͙͋̈͛͐͠ͅl̵̗̙͓̥̬̗͙̯̤̞̪͙̩͑̋͗̐͌̒̌̏̊͛͜͝͠ͅͅk̴̡̩̟̼͕͓̭̫͇̼͚͌̏̈́̋̽̎̄̌̈́̚
posted by lalochezia at 5:32 AM on April 13

You definitely can milk an elephant, though! The Sheldrick Trust has a special unit where they send the young orphan elephants that have permanent injuries from poacher traps and the like, where they can live a semi-wild but supported life. The matriarch of the herd had a baby to everyone's surprise, but for the first few days was a little confused and uncertain about the nursing thing. So to make sure the baby had the colostrum, they milked her and she was very amiable about it! Eventually she got the hang of it and the baby turned a healthy year old recently.
posted by tavella at 12:31 PM on April 13 [1 favorite]

That's gotta be a fascinating story for the dinner table.

Yeah, for the polar bear.
posted by amanda at 12:51 PM on April 13 [1 favorite]