Camino Confidential: Toodyay and the camels

Alert: this post may contain more info about camels than you ever wanted to know - and then some!

Val and I went on a MALA (Mature Age Learning Association) day trip to Toodyay, stopping off for an unusual visit to a camel farm. We were greeted by Max Bergmann, the blind cameleer, with his guide dog and a group of camels:

Max was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at 8 years old, which meant he had only a tiny amount of peripheral vision. This has not stopped him from following his dream to own a camel farm and to turn it into a successful business, DromeDairy. It’s a play on the word Dromedary.

His camels are rescued from the Australian outback, where they are regarded as pests, and often shot as part of a government led culling scheme. In fact, they are far better suited to the Australian climate and harsh conditions in the bush, than sheep and cattle which the early settlers brought here from Northern Europe.

Camels came to Australia in the 1840’s as pack animals to carry sleepers into the regions for railway building. They were known as “ships of the desert” and could walk up to 70kms a day. Their iconic hump does not store water as is commonly thought, but is in fact fat storage and affords some protection from the sun. They have knee pads on their elbows, so that they can hover above hot sand when they sit down. They have double eye lids which also provide protection from the sun. They are able to easily adjust their body temperature, going from 40% to 30% at night.

Max has developed a mobile milking parlour, based on a system invented in Lithuania. It is more environmentally friendly to take this out to the camel paddocks by tractor, rather than have the camels come into one central point (as with dairy cows). The baby camels stay very close to their mothers at all times. They suckle first, in order to get the milk flowing, then the mothers are hooked up to the milking machine which does 6 at a time and measures the intake. They are milked once a day, each camel providing only 2.5 litres. This is why camel milk is so expensive at $16 per litre. Also, camels only become profitable when they are 5 or 6 years old. They are pregnant for 13 months and cannot get pregnant again when they are lactating. The calves are kept close to their mothers for about 18 months. This is in contrast to dairy cows, where the calf is taken away immediately, so that the cow can become pregnant after a month only. The camels walk away from the milking parlour together with their calves, having received a treat of pellets as a reward. They are actually eager to be milked and queue up at the paddock gate when they hear the tractor arriving.

Max demonstrates his mobile dairy.

Max is involved in various experiments with a view to prove that camels are not a pest in the landscape. One is “co-grazing”, whereby a couple of camels are kept alongside a dairy herd. Cows and camels graze together and over time this improves the gut of the dairy herd which becomes more productive. In May, he is going to Kenya to advise on his mobile milking system, and possibly later to Pakistan.

The business of DromeDairy has expanded into skin and beauty products. Max discovered that his rough farm labourer's hands became much softer with all the camel milk that fell on them. After researching the subject, he discovered many useful properties in the milk. These products are now sold online, together with dried milk powder. They are particularly good for people suffering from eczema and other skin conditions. I bought a sample travel pack:

...for young looking skin and hair!

After the camel farm, our coach took us to Toodyay for lunch. Val and I had a picnic down by the river. Others went to the Coca Cola Cafe, which houses a Coca Cola museum!