I am from the US and I raise camels in the very middle of America in Kansas. My family is fifth generation cattle ranchers and I grew up raising cattle and riding horses at Shamrock Farms, our family ranch. We have always, and still do, raise registered Angus cattle. We have 1000 acres in heart of the tallgrass prairie where the grass grows so much it keeps the cattle fat in the summer and the hay produced in our area keeps them healthy and fat in the winter.

Nearly two decades ago, my father surprised me with two camels of my own because it had been a dream of mine to own camels after falling in love with them when I was a high school student and I encountered them in the Sahara Desert near the Egyptian/Libyan border. It was at that time I began learning what it takes to raise camels in cattle country. It was a very new thing for me and there were not a lot of resources or people I could look to for guidance. It’s probably no surprise, there were not a lot of books or information available at that time in the United States. I relied on our local university that had a veterinary school and a particular professor there had experience with camels, so I leaned on them for information about what to feed, what vaccinations were recommended and the basic needs for camels.

Over the years, I have engaged in international travel focused on camel centric countries where I go to try to learn as much as possible about camels, their care and their culture. I am always looking for more information on camels and new ideas for how I can improve the lives my camels. With raising cattle, I always had my family and older generations of cattle men that I could rely on for information and teaching, but in America that is not always the case with camels.

I now have a herd of 5 camels, which I realize is a very small group compared to those in camel countries. Even with only 5 camels, they keep me very busy with training and care and my dream to own camels has been fulfilled. Each day, I feel like the luckiest person alive because I can walk out and interact with my camels. I never thought this would be possible for someone like me and I never forget how grateful I am for my camels.

The camels of Shamrock Farms are used in several different capacities:

• Each spring they shed a large amount of fiber or hair, which I comb off and keep for sale. It is sought after by artists for felting, knitting, spinning and general wool uses. Some artists like the “farm to table” sort of concept of buying raw fiber from a local source.


• The camels also assist us in our land stewardship or land management at Shamrock Farms. We are finding that as camels browse, they seek the plants, shrubs and woody brush that cattle and horses do not eat. In fact, the camels seem to prefer these plants but they also seem to prefer the invasive plants that threaten our tallgrass prairie. We spend many man hours and dollars trying to rid our prairies of these invasive plants through controlled burns, spraying and cutting once we identify them in our pastures or parcels. When left to their own grazing patterns, the camels find these plants and eat them down to the ground. This does not necessarily eliminate the plants from our prairies but it manages them before they can go to seed and it sets them up to be eliminated when we conduct our spring time controlled burns.


• The camels also volunteer themselves to help with university instruction in an effort to help train future veterinarians on how to properly handle camels safely when they may need physical examination or medical intervention. What we have found is that American universities are not training vet students on the care and management of camels, so students are graduating without any experience or exposure to camels. The lack of knowledge or experience coupled with the sheer intimidation factor of working with such strong, large unfamiliar animals keeps many vets from ever working with camels. While I cannot provide the technical medical training, I am eager to teach students and professors how to safely work with camels, so the humans and the camels are safe when medical intervention is needed. The local university even did an international conference where they included a lab with the Shamrock Farms camels and we trained vet students all over the world proper safety protocols for camels.