Camel milk flows from north

The Hills have been milking camels in the Upper North for about a year and started selling the milk commercially six months ago, under the brand Humpalicious.

They have a herd of 52 cows, with about half a dozen milking at the moment and more due to give birth shortly.

After spending the past decade “living the life of Riley”, working as a captain and cook on super yachts across the globe, the Hills decided they wanted to try something different.

Mr Hill had previously spent some time in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands and they returned there to muster camels. 

While near Alice Springs, NT, they spoke heard about camel milk, including research into its health benefits, and found it fit with their skills and values.

“Warwick had the skills and contacts for the camels and I had the nutritional knowledge,” Mrs Hill said.

Mr Hill said the first year was a big learning curve.

“We’ve had a lot of experimental stuff in the first year as we find a way to have sustainable milk,” Mr Hill said.

After the muster, he said only about 3 per cent of the cows were ready to immediately begin milking.

“We mustered more than 1000 camels to get the 50,” he said.

He said part of the preparation was learning ways to train a camel to milk, but they have managed to get that time spent down to about six weeks.

With the herd established, the focus is on developing their breeding program.

“We’ve got quite a lot of young female calves from mothers with good udders and good milk,” he said.

While production remains low at the moment, they expect it to triple in the next few weeks as more of their camels calve.

With this in mind, they have just completely reconfigured the dairy and imported milk systems from Germany to replace the small milking machines they have been using.

The herd has purposely been kept small. 

Mr Hill said their land could be marginal so they have kept to a conservative stocking rate of about one camel to 25 hectares.

Mrs Hill said that also helped with milk quality, with the camels exposed to a wide range of feed sources, including saltbush, acacias and melaleucas.

The small herd also helps them maintain a bond with their animals.

“They’re animals that have to trust you and know you to give you milk,” she said. 

“They have complete control of their teats and udders.”

As the sole camel milk producers in the state, the Hills have needed to create many of their own systems.

They have hired an office and commercial kitchen at Port Pirie to pasteurise their milk, before it is frozen.

Mr Hill said since the product did not have a high turnover at this stage, they had gone down the path of freezing the bottled product and then shipping it direct to consumers.

They are also working predominantly without regulations, with none existing in SA for camel milk.

“We’re working to goat milk guidelines at the moment,” Mrs Hill said.

“We test every batch and nothing happens (with the milk) until we get the results,” Mr Hill said.

Dairy Authority of SA chief executive officer Brian Owens says there are plans to develop new guidelines within the next 12 months which will include camels.

Camel milk is often quoted at about $25 a litre. Mrs Hill said these prices were necessary for a relatively new industry within Australia.

“The costs are so huge and the market is so small, so we need that,” she said.  “It will come down but the market needs to grow. We need to change people’s thinking from it being an expensive milk, to being a cheap superfood.”

They sell online direct to the public, shipping to throughout Australia, and are stocked in some health food shops in Adelaide and at Harry’s Fine Foods on the highway near Port Pirie. They are also in talks with distributors.

Mrs Hill said interest increased as more people heard about the milk’s benefits.

“We’re slowly building the retail networks,” Mr Hill said.