# Porcine Milk

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073 "2008-09-04T22:43:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073/1 "2008-09-04T22:43:04Z")

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Thinking of the large mammals that humans have tamed and domesticated for the purpose of food, most of them are used as both a source of meat and dairy in at least one or two cultures, but I cannot recall ever having heard of pigs being used for the latter. Is there any particular reason sows are not milked? Is it a matter of economics, i.e., do they just not produce much of it? Or is it something else?

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**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073/2 "2008-09-04T22:49:49Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Pig milk contains about 6.8 percent fat, compared with about 3.25 percent in cow milk, so it’s quite rich. But sows make very little milk, so pig milk has poor commercial prospects. Furthermore, pigs are not ruminants (with four-stomach digestive tracts), so their fat doesn’t contain the short-chain fatty acids produced by a ruminant’s intestinal bacteria. Those fatty acids are what give cow, sheep and goat milk their distinctive flavors. So pig milk wouldn’t taste very good, except, of course, to piglets.
> 
> As you suspect, there are mechanical problems as well. A dozen or so small teats would challenge the engineers who design udder kinds of milking machines, and the supply of willing and able sow milkmaids is severely limited.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600315.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600315.html)

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**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073/3 "2008-09-04T22:58:59Z")

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Well, sows are\* mean\*. I certainly wouldn’t try to milk one.

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**Author:** ![Genericuser234](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5daacb/32.png) [@Genericuser234](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genericuser234)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073/4 "2008-09-04T23:07:11Z")

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this is just a WAG but i think that cows would produce alot more milk than sows would. so it might not be feasable to milk pigs. it seems gross to drink pig milk… then agian, if you THINK about it, cow milk isnt too far off the gross scale. ill keep my coca cola thanks:)

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porcine-milk/462073/5 "2008-09-05T02:49:15Z")

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We did this before, but it’s hard to search for since the vitally important word “pig” is too short to index.

IIRC, the expert answer was the fat content wasn’t real high & the taste was pretty astoundingly bad.