Putting dairy in dromedary

WRAY, Colo. — Kyle Hendrix developed an interest in the dairy industry as a youth, leading him to eventually make his own unique place within the industry.

Along with his wife, Holly, and children — Evan, Asher, Reed and Sarah — Hendrix operates Camelot Camel Dairy LLC, a 35-acre farm in Wray that is home to a herd of 10 milking camels and five Ayrshires and Milking Shorthorns.

“We milked 130 cows near Greeley for a bit,” Hendrix said. “We started in 2009, a bad year to jump in with high feed prices and low milk prices, but I had to do something — either start or sell out.”

The Hendrixes made their go at dairy farming for about a year before a combination of prices and overwhelming maintenance issues on their rented farm convinced them to sell their herd.

Although the cows left, Hendrix’s desire to dairy did not.

Hendrix learned of writer Christina Adams, who became interested in how camel milk might help her autistic son.

“At the time there was no one in the U.S. producing camel milk,” Hendrix said. “She actually flew to Israel and brought the first shipment of camel milk to the U.S.”

With his interest in camel dairying piqued, things began to fall in place. He learned of a few Amish families that were getting started with camel dairying.

“We were heading to Oklahoma for a Brown Swiss show and I knew about a man that was raising camels,” Hendrix said. “We met up with him and we clicked. We ended up buying our first animals from him.”

Camelot Camel Dairy was launched in 2012 and its on-farm processing plant was licensed in November 2014.

“We run a pretty specialized pasteurizer called a LiLi — low input, low impact,” Hendrix said. “The milk is flash-pasteurized, heating up to 165 degrees for 15 seconds. When the milk comes out of the machine it is already cooled back to 50 degrees. It goes into a finishing tank and then we bottle it in pint and liter bottles.”

After bottling, the milk is frozen, which increases shelf life and aids in shipping, Hendrix said. The milk can last for 6-12 months frozen.

The Hendrixes sell some of their milk off the farm and ship some to individul customers. They also work with Juba Farms to ship milk. 

Juba Farms works closely with a large population of Somalians, individually and with grocery stories around the country. Hendrix said camel milk is a very cultural thing for the Somali population. 

Shipped milk is typically in transit for 2-3 days. Frozen bottles of milk are packed with ice packs and packing paper in insulated Styrofoam boxes.

Joining the fledgling industry of camel dairying has made for a steep learning curve, Hendrix said.

“We have had to figure everything out on our own,” Hendrix said. “There are no books, no one to teach you. Our vet is learning alongside us, so we do most everything ourselves.”

Milking camels are dromedaries, or those with a single hump. Hendrix estimates their population in the U.S. to be somewhere between 2,500-3,000 with another 400-500 Bactrian, or two-humped, camels in the country.

“They are typically pretty healthy,” Hendrix said. “They don’t suffer from metabolic issues like cows might. We only vaccinate calves for clostridium at birth.”

The biggest health issue camels face is parasites.

“They can get overloaded, especially in areas where they graze lush, green grass,” Hendrix said. “We’re in a very dry area. We only deworm once a year, but some places they have to deworm every couple of months.”

The camels are fed brome and orchard grass mix hay, with about 10%-20% alfalfa hay. The camels are fed a couple pounds of a dry grain mix in the barn at milking time.

“They aren’t designed for high-protein diets,” Hendrix said. “They are really browsers — the grass is really the last thing they eat. They’ll strip a tree as high as they can reach, and they’ll eat cactus and sagebrush.”

There is a significant time investment in raising camels for dairy. Heifers typically do not calve in until 5-6 years of age.

“It’s a long waiting game to get them into production,” Hendrix said. “But, the oldest cow we have is about 31 years old, and I’ve heard they have a lifespan of around 40 years.”

All the camels are bred using bulls, as no camel A.I. industry exists in the U.S.

“In Saudi Arabia they have big dairies, and they are working on embryo transfer and A.I.,” Hendrix said. “We’re still pioneers here in the U.S. I’m sure one day we’ll have an A.I. program here.”

Hendrix hopes to someday import Saudi Arabian genetics, but that is currently not allowed by the U.S. government.

“They have high-yielding camels,” Hendrix said. “They’ve been doing this for years. If we could import semen or embryos, we could propel our genetics ahead 20-30 years.”

Camels must maintain a cow-calf relationship throughout their lactation to continue producing.

“If you lose a calf or wean them, the camels will dry up,” Hendrix said. “The calves come into the barn with the cows and stimulate them to let down. You have a 90-120 second window to collect the milk.”

The Hendrixes use cow-cluster milking units and floor buckets to milk their camels twice a day. Average production is between 1.5-2 gallons per camel, per day.

A camel’s gestation period is about 13 months. Hendrix said the time frame for breeding them back varies greatly.

“You have a 50-50 chance of getting them bred seven days after calving,” Hendrix said. “We have some that breed back after three or four months, and some that won’t breed back until they wean their calf.”

Hendrix runs his bulls with the cows year-round.

“We’ve had some cows get pregnant, dry off and calve after a 60 or 70-day dry period, like a cow,” Hendrix said. “That was perfect, but we have also had some wean a 15- to 20-month-old calf, dry off and then finally breed back, with more than a 13-month dry period.”

Even after a dozen years as a camel dairyman, Hendrix said he continues to learn daily.

“Knowing that we have so much to learn, so many ways we can improve, it’s really a very young and very exciting industry to be involved in,” Hendrix said.