🐪 She-camel

The she-camel, the female of the camel, is the main dairy animal of the deserts and semi-deserts of Africa and Asia. There are two species: the one-humped dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), the camel of the plains, and the two-humped Bactrian (Camelus bactrianus), the camel of the mountains. According to FAO, there are more than 41 million camels in the world; they are kept mainly by nomads for milk, meat, wool and transport.

For nomads, milk is often what counts most: while searching for pasture they can live in the desert for up to a month on camel's milk alone. Camels produce more milk from poor forage than any other dairy animal, and in northern Kenya far more than cows. The world's largest producer of camel's milk is Kenya, followed by Somalia and Pakistan. In sub-Saharan Africa, camels provide about 8% of all milk.

Around 5 L a day is considered a good yield. Over one lactation a she-camel gives 1,000–2,700 L in Africa and up to 12,000 L in South Asia. Yield peaks in the second or third month, she is milked for 8 to 18 months, and in the rainy season there is often twice as much milk as in the dry season. The dromedary gives far more milk than the Bactrian.

Dromedary milk is close to cow's milk in nutritional value: according to FAO, it averages 3.2 g of fat, 3.1 g of protein and 4.3 g of lactose per 100 g. It is slightly saltier, can contain eight times as much vitamin C and has no significant amount of β-lactoglobulin. It is drunk fresh or fermented: shubat is made in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, suusac in Kenya and Somalia, and gariss in Sudan.