TO MILK a camel, you need warm hands, a gentle touch and quick timing - camels give milk only in 90-second bursts.
Gil and Nancy Riegler, owners of the US's largest camel dairy near San Diego in California, said the extra work payed off with milk that was therapeutic, nutritious and delicious.
It's also illegal to sell in the US.
That hasn't stopped the Rieglers' enthusiasm for their unusual dairy, selling other products such as camel milk soap, giving tours and taking their 22-camel herd on the road to educate others.
In a few years, they hope, the US Food and Drug Administration might establish a test on camel milk that would allow them to make money in other ways.
"If we could sell camel's milk right now, we would have to charge $US40 ($A45) to $US60 ($A68) a litre," said Nancy Riegler, who lives with her husband on their 34-acre (13.7ha) dairy in Ramona, northeast of San Diego.
That's because there are only a few thousand camels in the US - mostly at zoos and wild animal parks - and few of them are breeding, which makes camel milk a rare commodity.
It costs about $US12,000 ($A13,860) to buy an adult female camel, and $US5000 ($A5,775) for a baby.
Still, the Rieglers are sold on what they say are the benefits of camel milk over cow milk.
They said it has more vitamin C, more anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties and contains an insulin-like protein that works well in the digestive tract.
Most camel milk is traded informally around the world, but in the future it could be worth roughly $US10 billion ($A11.31 billion), said Anthony Bennett, dairy officer for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
"In Russia, Kazakhstan and India, doctors often prescribe it to convalescing patients while, in Africa, it may be recommended for people living with AIDS," Bennett said.
"Research is also ongoing into the role claimed for camel milk in reducing diabetes and coronary heart disease."
Experts caution, though, against expecting a boom in US camel milk sales, in part because they produce so little milk.
"Camels are the most adaptive hoofstock on the planet, but they are not designed for bulk production," said Rod Owlett, an animal care manager at the San Diego Zoo.
"Cows have been specifically bred for giving vast amounts of milk."
Camel's milk is particularly popular in Africa and India, where Indian scientists have have studied the possibility of turning camel's milk into a skin-care product.
While camel meat is produced in Australia, camel's milk has yet to be marketed as a product.
Central Australian Camel Industry Association Pete Seidel said while the taste was fantastic, it was very labour intensive.
Camels would need to be tame enough to be herded as stock before they could be milked.
There are more than one million feral camels in the rangelands of Australia and this population will double in the next eight to 10 years.
The Australian federal government plans to allocate $A19 million to cull up to 350,000 camels over four years.
