Mares milk (for humans)

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Equi

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Another health craze is starting using mares milk for people’s. Great for gut health and skin conditions apparently and at only £6.50 per 250ml a total bargain :p Now I’ve sampled my mares milk and it is actually very nice tasting but I wouldn’t consider it a viable industry for the masses. The one farm that’s been in the news for it has 14 mares to milk and appears to keep the foals with them too out in a herd. the mares are all large continental type draft breeds, not necessarily mainstream horses that will go on to be athletic so this could be a very niche market. The only way out I can see is if they then sell the geldings back to the meat market which may not sit well with many who want to drink the milk, despite it being no different to how we get beef.

wonder how much mini horse milk could be - £2.50 per thimble? Lol
 
I saw this in the newspaper last weekend; I did think it a bit concerning that there was no mention of the fact that to provide milk commercially there would be more and more foals being produced, and there was no mention of what they would do with them. As the farm in the article was using a very heavy French meat breed I can't imagine that there would be much of a market for the foals in the UK. It surprises me how many intelligent adults never question what happens to the offspring produced as part of any milk farming, and I really don't think the UK needs to be flooded with any more low-grade riding horses at the moment (in this case I mean low-grade as they weren't a breed built for ridden work, and the stallions and mares aren't selected on the basis of breeding a foal for a particular market). I agree, Equi, that the only viable market for these foals may be for meat.

I did think that it just sounds like another food fad which will probably be a short lived craze, with no thought by most purchasers for the fate of the animals involved. To be fair to the farm though, there wasn't anything in the article I read to suggest they didn't provide a good standard of care.
 
in one of the articles i read that they were using a lighter stallion to try and produce foals suitable for riding.

https://archive.ph/TVdYB

I don't expect this is going to take off tbh. but they also run a livery yard etc so i think it's more than just a random flash in the pan thing.
 
It’s an interesting idea and a lot of horse cultures have drunk mare’s milk in the past but I do worry about those foals. Even if they run them on as riding prospects, they’re heavier than a shire cross and will probably be quite limited in what they can do.

If you ever get a chance, mare’s milk fresh from the mare is quite sweet and very tasty! I tried with some of the broodmares when I was a kid.
 
Snowfilly said:
It’s an interesting idea and a lot of horse cultures have drunk mare’s milk in the past but I do worry about those foals. Even if they run them on as riding prospects, they’re heavier than a shire cross and will probably be quite limited in what they can do.

If you ever get a chance, mare’s milk fresh from the mare is quite sweet and very tasty! I tried with some of the broodmares when I was a kid.
Click to expand...


If the heavy sire/dam is put to a tb, you will have an archetypal warmblood- they are usually pretty athletic!
 
Equi said:
Another health craze is starting using mares milk for people’s. Great for gut health and skin conditions apparently and at only £6.50 per 250ml a total bargain :p Now I’ve sampled my mares milk and it is actually very nice tasting but I wouldn’t consider it a viable industry for the masses. The one farm that’s been in the news for it has 14 mares to milk and appears to keep the foals with them too out in a herd. the mares are all large continental type draft breeds, not necessarily mainstream horses that will go on to be athletic so this could be a very niche market. The only way out I can see is if they then sell the geldings back to the meat market which may not sit well with many who want to drink the milk, despite it being no different to how we get beef.

wonder how much mini horse milk could be - £2.50 per thimble? Lol
Click to expand...

It's lovely that they keep the foals with their mothers, if that's what they do. I feel dreadfully sad that calves are taken from their mothers. I still drink (cow's) milk though.

I have heard that mare's milk is closer to human's milk than is cow's milk. Maybe it should be used for the making of infant formula for those who can't/won't breastfeed their babies.
 
A lot of people don’t mind the idea of horse meat but there simply isn’t a market here in the uk and I 100% am against them being live shipped to France etc. I’d be happy if they were humanely slaughtered here and the meat sent but somehow I don’t think that would happen any time soon.
 
It does seem a bit of a fad. Surely goats milk is much easier and cheaper to produce and also good for allergies, skin conditions etc.
 
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