World camel milk production grew five-fold in sixty years, from 0.63 million tonnes in 1961 to 3.15 million tonnes in 2020, and the camel is now the fifth most important dairy species. Saudi Arabia alone counted 2.2 million camels in 2023. Most of them are still kept the traditional way, which is where the gap, and the opportunity, lies.

Traditional and intensive yields

In traditional systems a dromedary gives around 7 litres a day, within a reported range of 3.5 to 20 litres. Intensive dairies get much more out of the same animal. At a large machine-milked camel dairy in the UAE, 385 camels produced an average of 3,152 kg per lactation over about 585 days, and an intensive Saudi herd reached 2,220 litres per lactation. The difference comes from feeding, health care, calf management and milking routine, which are exactly the areas where measurement helps.

Milking a camel is not milking a cow

Saudi Arabia began trials with cow milking machines on camels in 2003 at Al-Jouf, and installed its first semi-automatic camel milking line in 2008. The experience showed that camels need their own settings. Camel teats need a high vacuum to open, and in one study only 50 of 120 teat observations gave milk even at 70 kPa; cow liners can injure large camel teats. A camel parlour needs equipment, vacuum levels and routines built for the species, and staff trained to use them.

Health is the main lever

In the UAE dairy described above, clinical mastitis was the most frequent disease, at 29.7% of recorded cases. Calf mortality stood at 13.7% and has since fallen below 10%, and strict quarantine and screening kept brucellosis below 0.1% of the herd. These figures show where a camel dairy loses money and what disciplined monitoring can achieve.

Biosecurity carries public-health weight too. The World Health Organization identifies dromedaries as the main reservoir of MERS-CoV, with people infected through close contact with camels. Hygiene in the parlour, protective routines for staff and good records are part of running a camel dairy, not an extra.

Which technologies are ready

Camel-specific technology is younger than dairy-cow technology, and that should be said plainly. Research is promising: a video model classified five camel behaviours with 94.6% precision, though on only a few animals, and infrared cameras show that a camel’s eye temperature tracks heat load, which could become a heat-stress check. Peer-reviewed validation of collars, GPS and electronic tags on farmed camels is still scarce.

The cattle tools most likely to transfer are milk meters at each milking point, in-line conductivity measurement for early mastitis signs, electronic identification with good herd records, and climate control in calf housing. These give a camel dairy its yield and health data per animal, which is where improvement starts.

How to start

  1. Record yield per camel at every milking for one month to find the real spread across the herd.
  2. Review the milking routine, vacuum settings and liner type with a specialist.
  3. Introduce electronic identification and a herd record before adding sensors.

How Zoonexa helps

Zoonexa assesses camel dairies and herds, recommends the milking, identification and monitoring equipment that suits camels, installs it and trains your team. See our livestock health and monitoring solutions or book a farm visit.