Farming is one disaster after another. Just 30 miles from his farm, dozens of cattlemen from Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri huddle inside a sales barn in Lanesboro, chewing tobacco and studying stock as an auctioneer scans the bleachers. Wide-eyed cattle snort and butt against the sides of their wooden pen as the men bid by merely raising a finger. From a wooden scaffold above the ring, sales barn owner Joe Nelson reads off the routine vaccinations and medical treatments for each batch of cattle. Cattle are big business here in Fillmore County, where families are proud of their farming traditions.
American beef is the safest beef in the whole world.
These men work hard to make it that way, said Nelson, president of the county cattlemen s group. And, like Gerard, he notes the personal connection with his cattle. We re out here a lot with them, Redalen said. They know us. The neighbor burned his clothes before returning home to make sure no disease was carried back with him.