“A Dream Come True” is how Colorado camel dairy owner/operator Kyle Hendrix describes his vision to help provide an alternative for folks or babies who develop an allergy to cows’ milk, or just to have camels’ milk as another protein option. 

Fifty camels roam on 35 acres of pasture at their Camelot Camel Dairy, LLC near Wray, Colo., in northeast Colorado, near the Nebraska/Kansas border. Their four children, Evan, Asher, Reed and Sarah are a big part of their family business, which became licensed in November 2014 in Colorado to produce camel’s milk. All their milk is antibiotic free.

“We test each batch (state requirement) and we use no antibiotics, period,” Kyle Hendrix said. 

Camels are milked with an old-style bucket milker machine, and they hope to add in a pipeline. They pasteurize their camel milk with a specialized machine called LiLi, (stands for low input – low impact) which completely pasteurizes without homogenizing, separating milk, maintaining its nutritional value and fresh flavor.                                                                                                                                                           “The LiLi is an amazing machine. It replicates a big plant’s system but all in a small size. My wife Holly and I actually traveled to Vermont, to test run this exact machine, as it was in a small dairy equipment company trial barn, so we bought it used. Very simple to run, we run a sanitizer through, then start processing the milk,” Hendrix said.                                                                                                                                                             THE PROCESS

Here’s how that works: They hook up their hose to the raw tank, milk feeds through at 2 gallons per minute, going from 40 degrees (raw) then heating to 165 (pasteurizing) and in 15 seconds, has cooled down to 50 degrees and goes to the finish tank where it cool to 40 degrees before bottling.                                                 

The Hendrix family decision to raise camels is a success story that came about during a difficult time, while they operated a 130-cow dairy in 2009 on a rented farm.                                                                                                         

“Feed/milk prices were not good, and we started in a bad year. That was my dream, passion, first generation in dairying, after a multi-generational cattle ranching family. We ended up bailing out instead of digging a financial hole, worked with another dairy for a few years, then moved back home to help with the family cattle operation,” Hendrix said. With just a few cows left, they happened to show them at a National Brown Swiss Show in Stillwater, Okla., and met a man who raised camels for 20 years.

That sparked an interest. At the same time, an author and mother, Christina Adams, wrote a book called Camel Crazy, and had just brought back the first shipment of camel milk from Israel for her son, after learning the benefits of camel milk, even though camel milk was non-existent in the U.S. in 2012.                                       

“So, it was fate, we started a camel dairy, and it has been a true blessing for our family,” Hendrix said. The Hendrix family is one of two licensed camel dairies in the U.S., he said and there’s also a handful of other small operations producing raw milk, or for their own personal use.                                                                                                                                       

DEALING WITH CAMELS

Big, powerful camels make people earn their trust and respect. But they’re also a lot of fun, Hendrix said, and they handle heat and cold, well.                                                                            

“They have two toes and a soft pad on their feet and we’d have to be careful of slipping in icy conditions, but they could take 40 below easy or 100 degree day. They also grow a nice coat of wool/fiber for the winter months, then shed it off from May-June.                                                                                                         

Camel’s milk is an alternative for people with allergies, or just a different option in general. Hendrix said camel’s milk may possibly be a natural insulin for diabetics, and help with autoimmune diseases, and has been shown to help children with autism and gut health, Hendrix said.                                                                                                                                                

“I hear someone saying that they can’t drink cows’ milk, and I have some friends with children who have tried oat and soy, but their children’s stomachs kept rejecting it. So, they tried camels’ milk for years and they’ve done fine,” said Valeri Crenshaw; secretary-general of the North American Camel Ranch Owners Association. Crenshaw’s family has cattle and camels at Shamrock Farms near Manhattan, Kan., and she has five camels. Two of her camels came from Kyle Hendrix.                                                                                                       

The association was established two years ago.                                                                                                                                                                            

“We’re young and we have lofty goals, I’ve been with this association from the very beginning. The International Camel Organization in Saudi Arabia has been trying to get people together to create awareness of camels as livestock and to promote camel products and the culture surrounding camels,” Crenshaw said noting World Camel Day is June 22. They’ve been having Zoom meetings and are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, although the USDA wants to classify camels as exotic. But, they’re livestock; not exotic, they’re domesticated and they provide milk for people, she said.                                                                                       

“Valeri has traveled the globe and visited big camel dairies in Saudi Arabia,” Hendrix said.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

The Camelot Camel Dairy hopes to build a state-of the-art-facility one day, with a glass viewing area for milking and or processing.                                                                                                                                                     “We’re growing and gaining a lot of tour attraction between hosting school children, and seeing a lot of Somali cultural-families who like to visit and see camels, also many ag teachers, 4-H, FFA, and extension offices and  private tours,” Hendrix said.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The family built Camelot Camel Dairy’s 40×60 barn from scratch with its milking parlor and two small rooms for raw milk storage and a processing area. “We did all the welding, building, except concrete/tin work. When we built this barn, we only had three camels and have grown since,” he said. He also has a small cow dairy at the Wray-area farm too. where they milk Shorthorn and Ayrshire cows.                                                                                                                           

Cow milk is delivered to Wray, and the Holyoke area twice a week.                                                      

They freeze all their camel milk, then ship it out frozen all across the U.S. It’s packaged in either six pints in a box, or 14 pints in a box, and 24 or 32 pints are also available on their website. The camel milk is shipped in a heavy insulated styro-foam box enclosed by a cardboard carton. The frozen camel’s milk is packed with ice packs, and packaging paper. “Milk is then shipped directly from our farm to your doorstep via FedEx.”                                                                                   

As Hendrix put it, “The cows help keep our little dream, alive. The camels have been a true blessing for us.”

For more information: http://www.camelotdairy.com and -Facebook-Camelot Camel Dairy, LLC.                                                                                                                                                                         To answer questions about purchasing camel’s milk, fiber or other products produced from camels, go to the Facebook page North American Camel Ranch Owners Association, or call Valeri Crenshaw at (816) 805-7728.