Ellesmere firm sets up desert camel dairy

A herd of camels in the scorched Arabian desert is being milked using equipment made in the rolling countryside of Shropshire.

Ellesmere-based company Fullwood has installed a state-of-art camel milking parlour in the desert near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The move is seen as a way of saving on manpower by dairy bosses because it typically takes two people to milk a single camel.

Operations at the UAE dairy are a far cry from those in Britain, where Fullwood began trading more than 70 years ago.

Designers had to custom-build the parlour to accommodate the camels and make sure it could withstand the relentless desert heat.

Today Fullwood typically makes milking parlours for cows of all shapes and sizes from the tiny Jerseys to the large European dairy cows.

It also fits parlours for milking sheep, goats and even buffalo. But this latest project has seen a herringbone milking parlour installed to allow the camel dairy to move from hand milking the camels to using machinery and extending its herd from 800 to 2,500.

In the past the hand milking involved two dairy workers attending to each camel with a stainless steel bowl.

Suzy O'Shea, from Fullwood, said: "At the moment the camels are being trained to use the parlour before milking begins.

"I understand that camel milk is very sought after and makes very good chocolate."

Fullwood installed the world's first mechanised camel milking facility in the United Arab Emirates in 2006.

John Baines, technical director of Fullwood, said all associated equipment, including the plant's milk cooling system, had to be housed in cellars below the facility to protect milk and equipment from the intense heat and dust storms that dominate the region.

"Fullwood is very privileged to be part of this exciting and innovative project," he said.

Because of the remoteness of the desert dairy, a back-up system of generators and standby pumps and compressors have been installed.