KEY POINTS:
As you are driving through the countryside and a nearby farm fills the car with the pungent aroma of fresh manure don't pull faces and blame each other, wind down your window and take a good lung full - it might help save your life.
I can well remember occasions of my childhood being told that manure was the smell of the countryside, it was healthy and to breathe it in.
I was not convinced. It didn't smell particularly healthy.
However, studies reported in the New Scientist show that breathing in cow dung could in fact provide protection against cancer.
Dairy farm workers breathing in dust laden with dried manure are up to five times less likely to get lung cancer, the New Scientist reports.
One argument is that the anti-cancer activity of the immune system is boosted by exposure to viruses and bacteria via infection, vaccination or proteins.
One protein - endotoxin - is the link to manure.
A study undertaken at the University of Padua in Italy showed that the chances of developing lung cancer were far lower among dairy workers in the province than for people working in orchards and fields.
Plus, the more cows you work with the more protection you enjoy.
An investigation into Chinese female cotton textile workers by the University of Washington in Seattle showed that workers with higher and longer exposure to endotoxin had a lower number of cancers, including breast, stomach and pancreatic varieties.
The New Scientist says this could be because the cotton dust contains a lot of endotoxin - a lipopolysaccharide which is found in the cell walls of many bacteria - which keeps the body's immune system on high alert.
Another theory for the anti-cancer activity is that infection helps to re-balance the immune system, with an imbalance leading to responses behind conditions such as allergies and asthma.
In effect, the body forgets it is supposed to fight off the serious danger of cancer while overreacting to a bit of pollen - until a healthy dose of germ-laden reality sorts out its priorities.
Cleanliness is a good thing - wash your hands after using a toilet, store raw meat below cakes in the fridge, vacuum the floor once a week and so on - but the world is getting somewhat obsessed with being germ free.
And yet everyone seems to instinctively know that if you catch a bug you gain some future protection.
So when it comes to bacteria, as with all things in life, the message appears to be all things in moderation.
That doesn't mean, however, that dairy farmers can keep their cow-pat caked boots on inside the farmhouse, smell of the countryside or not.
FEELING THE HEAT
A long dry summer is good for the beach but sheep farmers are having difficulty getting lambs processed as they get animals off the land and some dairy producers are moving early to dry off cows and cull the duds.
Westpac says there has been severe soil moisture deficits, particularly in Hawkes Bay, Marlborough and parts of Canterbury and Otago, weak grass silage production and a 1.7 million drop in lamb numbers, down 5 per cent.
Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen says the dry spell is really starting to bite into dairy production.
But farmers are not panicking.
"No one's screaming drought at this stage, it's just a tight, dry spell," Pedersen says.
A welcome cloud on the horizon could come in the shape of the La Nina weather pattern.
Westpac economist Doug Steel says agricultural production tends to lift when La Nina is present, if not immediately then shortly afterwards.
"Sure, conditions right at the moment are dry as a chip but, hopefully, there will be some rain especially for the North and that should bring improved ag production through 2008 and into 2009."
When the welcome wet weather arrives it probably won't be for everyone, focused on the north and north-east.
"Just on one indicator you can't say everyone's going to be doing better but the total ag production in New Zealand should be a little bit improved from last season."
CONFIDENCE WANES
A Rabobank/Nielsen Confidence Survey last week showed the first drop in farmer confidence in a year.
Conducted during December the survey showed the number of farmers expecting the rural economy to improve dropped to 34 per cent from 49 per cent in the previous survey, while conversely the number expecting things to get worse grew to 22 per cent, up from 10 per cent.
Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen is not surprised by the drop.
The farming industry was roughly split into two camps, he says.
Dairy and grain producers are enjoying returns they could probably only have dreamt of but sheep and cattle producers are almost in despair with pricing, while chicken and pork producers are finding it difficult because of the high price of grain.
In the survey, sheep and beef farmers showed the biggest drop in confidence, with the number expecting conditions to deteriorate rising to 32 and 29 per cent respectively, up from 11 per cent and 16 per cent.
Meat producers had been expecting fortunes to improve with a commodity price upswing.
It has not happened and the price that lamb farmers are getting is significantly below production costs, Pedersen says.
"The longer the wait the more you actually start to think perhaps it's not going to happen."
A Northern Hemisphere reduction in sheep numbers has pushed more supply into the system, keeping prices down and sending many Kiwi sheep farmers to their bank managers to get by.
With the majority of lambs already processed, any shift now will not be of great help until next season.
"So it's a full year before farmers can expect to get back to a price level that anything like matches their costs," Pedersen says. "So it's a pretty depressing situation really."
The majority of dairy producers still expected economic conditions to improve, although the total slipped back to 59 per cent from 67 per cent.
Despite a record forecast payout from Fonterra of $6.90, compared with $4.46 last season, dairy farmers are being very prudent when it comes to spending.
The first task has been to reduce debts built up in previous seasons.
Meanwhile, suppliers have been raising prices to take advantage of the commodity price boom, Pedersen says.
"So I don't think there's going to be any boom created by the spending from the dairy industry this year."
RAIN DANCE
After one of the most severe droughts on record some parts of Australia have seen a deluge of the wet stuff.
So much so that towns and farms in Queensland and New South Wales were even under threat from floodwater.
The Australian drought has played a part in driving up world dairy commodity prices but it is too early to say whether the recent weather will affect the global picture.
"Certainly a welcome development but certainly not going to turn around the whole production scene in Australia," says Westpac economist Doug Steel.
Australian farmers have been culling cows for the past few years.
"They need more of it and they would need to have confidence to re-build the herds."
There is a little bit of pressure on cow prices in Australia, suggesting some desire to start a process of rebuilding. But it is still early days.
ARTIFICIAL BREEDING
Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) says this season showed the largest increase in artificial insemination in more than half a century.
Genetics general manager Peter Gatley says the dairy industry was going through a growth phase which LIC expects to continue for some time.
"It takes three years from mating until the new replacement animal starts milking, and then we'll have to breed even more to replace the cows that farmers are currently retaining to meet the shortfall," Gatley says.
LIC breeds four out of five dairy cows in New Zealand, the company says.
"Farmers can access the top bulls in the world for less than $20 so having a bunch of bulls running amok in the herd is not particularly attractive," Gatley says. "Some farmers won't have a bull on the property now."
