China's giant cow farms leave neighbours up milk creek

Gannan, China

GIANT piles of black manure towering over cornfields, while rancid-smelling effluent from thousands of cows spills onto the land - this is the price of a glass of milk in China today.

Large-scale dairy farms have boomed in the Asian giant, as its near 1.4 billion consumers overcame centuries of cultural reluctance to embrace the white fluid.