They have continued in dairy but a farming couple at Kyabram in northern Victoria have traded in their traditional cows for camels in search of a niche market.

The Williams family were share farming dairy farmers, milking between 700 and 800 cows a day.

Now they milk 14 camels and said they could not be happier with the switch.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 7 minutes 21 seconds 7 m Chris Williams from Kyabram explains why he started milking camels. ( Warwick Long ) Download 3.4 MB

The family had been looking for a value-added dairy product to continue dairy farming when they stumbled upon camel milk.

"We were looking at different animals to milk, with people milking buffalo and goats," Chris Williams said.

"After we did a bit of work in the Northern Territory for a while, we knew camels and heard you could milk camels.

"We found there was a global demand for camel milk."

Camel milk is a high value product and the Williams's sell it for $21 a litre.

"It's got 30 per cent less fat than cows' milk and 40 per cent less lactose and it's higher in calcium, magnesium and vitamin C," Mr Williams said.

He said people wanting to test the reported health benefits of camel milk have led to its increased popularity.

Mr Williams said families with an autistic member or those with milk intolerances or allergies had been trying it.

However, he conceded that there was little research in the area to prove many of the theories about the health benefits of camel milk.

"We couldn't find any research done, because there are not many people milking camels for there to be any research," he said.

"We supplied some milk to the CSIRO recently so I think they might start to do some tests."