Word: livestock
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Despite an off and on drizzle, a cluster of farmers at the gates of the Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association yards in tiny (pop. 800) Bonduel, Wis., soon grew into an unruly crowd of 500. Many came direct from their dawn-time chores, still unshaven and wearing sty-stained overalls. They were there to halt-by force if necessary-all livestock deliveries that...
...Murderer!" Whenever a truckload of livestock approached Equity gates, the angry farmers massed together, blocked the driveway, sometimes violently rocked the truck. Nearly 20 trucks turned back; other drivers prudently pulled off the highway to wait it all out. But Ivan Mueller, 40, a Cecil, Wis., hauler, drove his Ford truck steadily down State Highway 117. A pistol lay on the seat beside him. He swung into the Equity driveway and stopped a few feet from the gates...
Barnyard Battle Plans. Bonduel was no isolated incident. It was one result of a militant livestock-farmers' crusade unleashed on Aug. 19 by the National Farmers Organization (estimated membership: 100,000) in 23 states. Hatched by N.F.O. President Oren Lee Staley, 41, onetime Missouri farmer turned big-league farm organizer, the scheme called for thousands of livestock men to withhold their products in a massive market boycott that would eventually boost meat prices all over the U.S. Then, as Staley planned it, he would negotiate longterm, high-priced contracts with meat packers on behalf of legions of farmers. Staley...
Still smarting from those experiences, N.F.O. adherents this time set out to make their boycott stick. Besides Bonduel, the Midwest has recently counted many deeds of destruction. Barns have burned in the night, livestock buying stations have been bombed, truck drivers have been stopped and threatened at road blocks, roadside snipers have fired out of the dark at speeding trucks, and at least one market-bound highway route has been sabotaged with a plank bristling with broken sickle blades. In Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota there is talk of calling out the National Guard...
...Regrets. The new attitudes are paying off. Despite a gritty drought in 1961-62, there are now some 40 million cattle on Argentina's pampas-and even that is not enough to fill both domestic and foreign demand. Instead of just livestock, the land is producing vast amounts of wheat and other crops; in the next few years a $50 million irrigation project will transform the arid pampa seca southwest of Buenos Aires into a 200,000-acre region that will eventually produce $60 million worth of fodder, fruit and vegetables annually. There are few regrets for the pampas...