Camel Milk Production System in Türkiye

Abstract

Camels are known as "ship of the desert" and "beast of burden" and resistant to harsh climatic conditions. Their function has changed in the modern world and they have become a food source like other farm animal species. In the last 60 years, the number of camels, their meat and milk production in the world have increased 3.0, 4.95 and 5.0 times, respectively. In Türkiye, both Bactrian and dromedary camels are reared since F1 hybrid ♂ Tülü (Bactrian ♂ x dromedary ♀) perform better in camel wrestling, which is a unique culture of Anatolia. There are also a few farms aiming to produce camel milk and rearing young camels intensively in Türkiye. However, many practices such as calf rearing, insemination of cows, milking stimulation, milk preservation, milk quality control, milk collection and marketing and milk processing into the products are not as modern as in dairy cattle production. Although dairy camel farms in Türkiye have a higher milk production potential, since high milk prices lead to low demand for camel milk and there is only one camel milk processing facility to turn camel milk into products, farms produce far below their capacity. Processing camel milk into the products such as cheese, whey, yoghurt, pasteurized milk, kefir and ayran is still in its infancy. In conclusion, although the basis of camel rearing in Türkiye today is based on wrestling camel breeding, understanding of the benefits of camel milk on human health and the increase in demand for camel milk products suggest that this situation will change in favour of dairy camel breeding in the near future.