Pigs are mammals. That means they have teats that produce milk for their piglets.
But of all the different types of milk we humans drink and use in cooking, pig's milk is not one of them.
There are several reasons for this.
Difficult to milk
First and foremost, pigs are difficult to milk.
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Their udders are different from those of cows and goats, where milk accumulates and needs to be emptied.
Instead, a sow releases her milk in short bursts. Only a few seconds pass between the moment she calls her piglets over and the milk becoming available.
“It's only during this short period that you can get milk from the teats, whereas cows and goats can be milked more or less at any time,” says Inger Lise Andersen.
She is a professor of ethology and animal welfare at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).
A pig’s teats are also difficult to get hold of, and the piglets have to work very hard to get the milk out.
Meat rather than milk
The meat industry wants large pigs with plenty of meat that can be sold to consumers.
That makes it important for pigs to grow as large as possible. The more milk the piglets drink, the more they grow.
Farmers do not want to risk taking milk away from the piglets.
“The timing of nursing is controlled entirely by the sow, and if the piglets don't come when she calls them, they miss a meal. Then they have to wait an hour for the next opportunity,” says Andersen.
With cows and goats, the young can initiate nursing themselves.
Inger Lise Andersen studies pigs at NMBU.(Photo: Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance media archive)
If someone nevertheless managed to milk a sow during the brief period when it is possible, would people drink it?
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Pig expert Inger Lise Andersen has not tasted pig's milk herself, but she believes it is likely to be fattier and richer because a sow needs to feed a large litter.
According to this article on the IFLScience, its consistency is quite different from cow’s milk. It is more watery, fairly bitter, and has a distinct gamey taste.
Richard Ibsen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, offers a different description. He told videnskab.dk that pig’s milk tastes similar to coffee cream (link in Norwegian).
Pig's milk cheese and ice cream
Some people have tried making dairy products from pig’s milk.
A farmer in the Netherlands made ice cream, among other things. It was a hit with the public, according to The Times, and was described it as fatty, nice, and creamy.
The farmer had to milk the pigs by hand to collect enough milk for the ice cream. There are no milking machines for pigs. It was probably a fairly chaotic process, considering that sows have a total of 14 teats that release milk for only about 15 seconds at a time.
British chefs also made a pink pig's milk cheese a few years ago.
In Mongolia and parts of China and Russia, people drink horse milk. They drink both fresh milk and fermented milk containing alcohol. You can read more about mare's milk here.
In Norway, the Sámi have traditionally made a type of cheese from reindeer milk. They add leaves from mountain sorrel, which allows the cheese to be stored frozen.
It is not only our taste buds or practical problems that stand between us and pig's milk.
Animal welfare is another consideration.
Cheese lover and blogger Stephen Flemming has also tried to answer the question of why we don't make cheese from pig’s milk. He writes that there are also some ethical dilemmas involved.
'Pigs are intelligent, social animals. Ensuring humane treatment while milking pigs could be complex and controversial,' he writes on his blog.
Pig farming is already controversial in large parts of the world because pigs are kept in cramped conditions and have few toys or little straw to root around in, according to this article on forskning.no (link in Norwegian).
