Southern Missouri farmers shipping camel milk across the country
photos by Sara Schafer and Ricki Spargo
At 6:45 a.m. sharp, the first three ladies are ushered into their stalls. In an adjoining pen, their corresponding calves line up, ready for breakfast. The three calves nurse until they are full. Then the farmers hook up state-of-the-art milkers and the white gold begins to flow.
am Hostetler and his grandsons regularly milk 30 to 40 of the camels twice a day in their FDA-approved milk parlor. The milk is pasteurized, bottled, frozen and shipped from the farm.
The scene is similar to the many dairies across Missouri. But this farm isn’t filled with cows — it’s home to camels. With a herd of 200, Amish farmer Sam Hostetler likely runs the largest camel dairy in the country. The milk is sold in more than 650 markets and grocery stores throughout the U.S. under the brand Camel Culture.
Sam’s path to milking was far from straight. When he was a child, his parents bought a few exotic chickens. He was hooked. When he became a farmer, his love for exotic animals expanded to ostriches, hippos and crocodiles. His work in the alternative livestock trade led him to owning a few camels, which he would lease to Dolly Parton’s Stampede in Branson for their dinner shows.
Camels will only produce milk when their babies are present, so calves spend most of their time near their mothers.
One day, a doctor reached out to Sam saying she was looking for someone who was milking camels. She wanted to provide camel milk to a patient. Even with all of his exotic animal contacts, he didn’t know anyone who fit the bill. But it gave him an idea.
“I’ve been known to do some crazy things,” says Sam, a member of Ozark Electric Cooperative. “I milked one camel for a year. That camel gave 6,000 pints. She wanted more milk, so I started milking a few more camels.”
Early on, Sam converted a small stall in his barn to a makeshift milking parlor. He milked the camels and filled bottles by hand. As milk demand grew, he added more camels and officially founded Humpback Dairy in 2010.
A few years later, Sam received a call from Ryan Fee of Seattle, Washington. Ryan was volunteering with a refugee resettlement program and was looking for a way to bring some element of home to a few Somali families he met. He asked them what they missed most about home. Their answer: camel milk.
Ryan, like most Americans, didn’t know people in Middle Eastern, Asian and African cultures have drunk camel milk for centuries. Of the 9 million camels in the world, around 7 million are in Somalia. But the U.S. is only home to around 5,000 camels, according to USDA. Ryan started researching the few U.S. camel farms, which led him to Sam. The two businesses joined forces, growing Camel Culture into one of the largest distributors of camel milk.
“We make a good team,” says Danny Thompson, chief operating officer of Camel Culture. “We’re the distributor, and they are the manufacturer. We don’t own the farm but we buy milk from that farm and distribute it all over the U.S. We have grown together in the camel milk business.”
Camels are docile, friendly and social animals.
In total, Sam has around 200 dromedary camels, which are the one-hump variety. He and his grandsons regularly milk 30 to 40 of the camels (whenever they have calves). On average, the camels produce 15 pints of milk per day, and are milked twice a day. Three years ago, Sam and his family built an FDA-approved and licensed processing, pasteurization and bottling facility for their dairy. After it’s bottled, the milk is frozen and shipped with dry ice to Halal grocery stores, international markets and natural grocery store chains. They also ship directly to homes through their company website and sell products on Amazon.
“There are all kinds of people living in the U.S. from the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa and Central Asia,” Danny says. “The mission of Camel Culture is to help bring a taste of that homeland here to the U.S. market. We talk with people all the time who have not tasted camel milk in years. We love to see people’s faces light up with joy when they taste a piece of their home culture again.”
Camels have bushy eyebrows and two rows of long eyelashes to protect their eyes from sand and dirt.
A handful of markets carry Camel Culture milk in Missouri, primarily in the metro area of Kansas City. Missouri actually has the seventh highest population of resettled Somali refugees in the country, according to RefugeKC. In fact, Somali is the third-most-spoken language in Kansas City after English and Spanish. These growing numbers make Danny excited for the future of camel milk.
“A lot of people drink for nostalgia for their home, as well as the health benefits,” he says. The protein structure of camel milk is similar to human mother’s milk and can boost your immune system. Camel milk contains high levels of iron, many vitamins, calcium and antioxidants. It is low in cholesterol and lactose. It can also be a good fit for people who have dairy allergies.
Camel milk can seem expensive compared to cow milk, Danny says. It’s an issue of supply and demand, as in one year, a cow gives over 10,000 liters of milk, while a camel gives around 2,000 liters. Cow milk costs about $1 per liter, while Camel Culture milk retails for $26 per liter. “Camels only produce a little bit of milk, but what they produce is super nutrient-dense, which is one of the reasons why the price is so high,” he says.
On the farm, Sam and his family drink camel milk, which is bright white in color, all the time. “We keep other milk for company, but my wife and I drink it every day,” he says. “It’s good. By nature, it has a little bit of a salty aftertaste. We eat it with cereal. If you use it in soup, puddings or pies, you wouldn’t ever notice the difference.”
In early September, Camel Culture hosted an open house for their store owners, families and friends at the Miller farm. Guests were able to tour the facility, interact with camels and view the twice-daily milkings
While the U.S. camel milk industry is in its infancy, Danny is excited for the niche Camel Culture fills. “It takes a lot of education,” he says. “When you say camel milk, people’s first reaction is, ‘You can milk a camel?’ ”
For more information about camel milk and Camel Culture visit camelculture.org.