page_title: Kumis
section_title: Production of mare's milk
hierarchical_section_title: Kumis / Production of mare's milk
caption_attribution_description: English: A mare being milked in the Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan. Кыргызча: Суусамырда бээ саап жатат.
context_page_description: Kumis is a fermented dairy product traditionally made from mare's milk or donkey milk. The drink remains important to the peoples of the Central Asian steppes, of Huno-Bulgar, Turkic and Mongol origin: Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Kalmyks, Kyrgyz, Mongols, and Yakuts. Kumis was historically consumed by the Khitan, Jurchen, and Han Chinese of North China as well.
  Kumis is a dairy product similar to kefir, but is produced from a liquid starter culture, in contrast to the solid kefir "grains". Because mare's milk contains more sugars than cow's or goat's milk, when fermented, kumis has a higher, though still mild, alcohol content compared to kefir.
  Even in the areas of the world where kumis is popular today, mare's milk remains a very limited commodity. Industrial-scale production, therefore, generally uses cow's milk, which is richer in fat and protein, but lower in lactose than the milk from a horse. Before fermentation, the cow's milk is fortified in one of several ways. Sucrose may be added to allow a comparable fermentation. Another technique adds modified whey to better approximate the composition of mare's milk.
context_section_description: A 1982 source reported 230,000 mares were kept in the Soviet Union specifically for producing milk to make into kumis.
  Rinchingiin Indra, writing about Mongolian dairying, says "it takes considerable skill to milk a mare" and describes the technique: the milker kneels on one knee, with a pail propped on the other, steadied by a string tied to an arm. One arm is wrapped behind the mare's rear leg and the other in front. A foal starts the milk flow and is pulled away by another person, but left touching the mare's side during the entire process.
  In Mongolia, the milking season for horses traditionally runs between mid-June and early October. During one season, a mare produces approximately 1,000 to 1,200 litres of milk, of which about half is left to the foals.
caption: A mare being milked in the Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan
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