Date | September 21–25, 1931 |
---|---|
Location | Cedar County, Iowa, US |
Type | Rebellion |
Cause | Bovine tuberculosis testing |
Motive | Income from slaughtered cows |
Participants | Iowa farmers |
Outcome | Successful testing |
Arrests | Jacob W. Lenker Paul Moore |
The Iowa Cow War was a series of violent disputes over the testing of cows for bovine tuberculosis in 1931. After distrustful farmers tried and failed to repeal the testing program, they congregated to block tests from taking place. The farmers believed that the test might infect cows with tuberculosis or make pregnant cows have spontaneous abortions. They also believed that the testing was unconstitutional. The owner of Muscatine radio station KTNT, Norman G. Baker, spread misinformation which resulted in more farmers protesting the testing, sometimes violently. Fifty veterinarians, all working in pairs and while being protected, gave injections to 5,000 cattle per day for a week. The Iowa Cow War came to a conclusion when 31 Iowa National Guard units were deployed to stop the protesting. Two farmers were arrested for their actions during the conflict. There was one casualty, and no deaths. Most of the testing was completed by October 1931.
Bovine tuberculosis was a problem in the US state of Iowa and in 1929 attempts at eradication were approved. An Iowa veterinarian in 1894 said that tuberculosis was the main issue that his office faced. People often did not understand the danger of tuberculosis in cows due to the long period of incubation and its effects. Many respected medical professionals thought that cows were unable to transmit the disease to people, including Robert Koch, who completed early research on tuberculosis. [1] The State of Iowa began requiring testing to reduce the frequency with which dairy cattle with tuberculosis could contaminate the milk supply and cause milk-drinking people to contract the disease. [2] The program was financed by a property tax levy of up to three mills. [2] In 1929, the Iowa State Legislature passed a law requiring all dairy and breeding cows to be tested for bovine tuberculosis. Iowa farmers, who did not trust the tests, were opposed to the law. The farmers believed that the test might infect cows with tuberculosis or make pregnant cows have spontaneous abortions. They also thought that the test was against the United States Constitution, but this was dismissed by the Iowa Supreme Court in 1930. [3]
Veterinarians, who were approved by the State of Iowa, injected tuberculin under the base of the cows' tails. After 72 hours, the veterinarians would see if the cows had any reactions to the tuberculin, such as swelling. Cows that reacted were slaughtered and the farmers were paid an indemnity. The farmers did not receive the market share of their cows after they were slaughtered, and the slaughter value was subtracted from the appraised value. [1] Farmers asserted that the test lowered milk quality and the cows' release of milk. [2]
Muscatine KTNT radio station owner Norman G. Baker spread misinformation in southeastern Iowa about medical professionals, Iowa politicians, farming magazines, and Iowa universities. Baker's words caused farmers to rebel in Cedar County. [1] In February 1931, two years after the adoption of the testing law, 1,000 farmers traveled by train from Tipton, Iowa, to the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines. On arrival, they demanded that the Iowa Legislature make the tests optional. After the Legislature refused to do so, the farmers decided to act on their own. [2]
On March 9, 1931, over 500 people protested at the south of Tipton at a farm owned by E. C. Mitchell, who had previously worked with four other farmers to resist the testing of their cows. On April 14, 1931, Iowa veterinarians and 20 nearby police officers were at farmer William C. Butterbrodt's farm, northeast of Tipton, to test his cows for tuberculosis. Almost 1,000 protestors traveled to Butterbrodt's farm to block tests from being performed, although no acts of violence occurred. [1] Another meeting was held at the Iowa State Capitol on March 19, 1931, with more than 1,500 people attending. Iowa Governor Dan Turner kept the mandatory testing in place. Veterinarian Peter Malcolm was forced off of E. C. Mitchell's farm in Cedar County on April 10, 1931, after Macolm succeeded in testing 12 cows. Seventy-five protestors confronted Malcolm and several officials, resulting in Iowa agent Earl Gaughenbaugh telling the farmers to leave. After a cow was identified as having tuberculosis, Mitchell had two protestors throw Malcolm off the land. Assistant Attorney General Oral Swift was pushed against a barbed wire fence. Mitchell said that he only allowed the testing to "lead them on". [1] Newspaper reporters were unable to write stories about the Mitchell farm incident due to protestors and The Des Moines Register and Tribune took photographs from the air that showed automobiles that were parked to prevent the farmers' cows from being tested. Malcolm's tests on Mitchell's farm were going to expire soon and Turner met with some protesters in Iowa City. The National Guard was deployed to Cedar Rapids on the morning of Malcolm reviewing the test results, but they were sent home shortly after on the same day. The final step of testing succeeded without any issues and one bull had a reaction. The 15 farmers that met with Turner in Iowa City had an assembly at Butterbrodt's farm on April 14, 1931. Turner said that only the farmers' elected representative could change the testing law. Smaller conflicts continued to happen with veterinarians' being forced from farms. [1]
The Cow War happened during the fall of 1931, with most of it taking place in Cedar County, Iowa. [3] People signed petitions and held rallies while not allowing officials to enter their farms. To prevent the advancement of the officials, the farmers stopped them from entering the roads while attacking the veterinarians by throwing things at them including chamber pot contents. When a farmer was arrested and placed in jail, a mob freed him from his confines. [4] On September 21, 1931, when state officials left the courthouse at noon, protestors followed them to Jacob W. Lenker's farm. [3] Three hundred or four hundred farmers went to Lenker's with crudely made weapons to attack 63 or 65 officers and two veterinarians. The farmers threw mud and rocks at the officers, while also swinging clubs and slashing the officers' tires. [2] [5] The farmers also had pitchforks. Tear gas was used against the farmers, but there was not much effect. Malcolm's tires were punctured, his gas line was slashed, and mud was put in his radiator. [3] The chief of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, James Risdon, told Iowa Governor Dan Turner about the situation being "out of control". [5] The next day, Turner started martial law and had 1,800 Iowa National Guardsmen in 31 units from the 133rd and 168th Infantry Regiments and 113th Cavalry Regiment travel to Tipton and set up a base on the Tipton fairgrounds. [2] [3] It cost over $1,000 to send in troops. [6] People heard yells of "Here comes the Army!" and "You farmers better run!" when the troops jumped from the rail cars. [5] Business owners were worried that farmers would boycott them for not wanting to participate. [5] The advancement of soldiers with drawn bayonets backed up the testing. [4]
Machine guns were placed facing country roads, sentries patrolled the area, and armed outposts were built as soldiers and veterinarians traveled around Cedar County to test cows for tuberculosis; the farmers gave in for the most part due to the soldiers. Fifty veterinarians, all working in pairs, gave injections to 5,000 cattle per day for a week while being protected. A small number of the tested cows were infected. [2] Most of the testing was completed by October 1931, [4] and the last of the soldiers left on November 25, 1931. [6] The only casualty was that of a soldier due to a bullet wound he received from cleaning his gun, but the soldier did not die. [4]
The veterinarians saw no cows on Lenker's farm due to his selling his 21 cattle to farmer Harry Duffy in Muscatine County. As he was not allowed to interfere with the process or move his cattle, Lenker was charged for contempt of court and conspiracy jointly with farmer Paul Moore for violating the tuberculin test law. They were sentenced to up to three-year terms in the Fort Madison, Iowa, penitentiary. Lenker and Moore were paroled 40 days later. [2]
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also describe a dairy farm or the part of a mixed farm dedicated to milk for human consumption, whether from cows, buffaloes, goats, yaks, sheep, horses or camels.
Bovine somatotropin or bovine somatotrophin, or bovine growth hormone (BGH), is a peptide hormone produced by cows' pituitary glands. Like other hormones, it is produced in small quantities and is used in regulating metabolic processes. Scientists created a bacterium that produces the hormone somatotropin which is produced by the cow's body after giving birth and increases milk production by around 10 percent.
Raw milk or unpasteurized milk is milk that has not undergone pasteurization, a process of heating liquid foods to kill pathogens for safe consumption and extension of shelf life.
Mycobacterium bovis is a slow-growing aerobic bacterium and the causative agent of tuberculosis in cattle. It is related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium which causes tuberculosis in humans. M. bovis can jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis-like infection in humans and other mammals.
Dairy cattle are cattle bred with the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species Bos taurus.
Daniel Webster Turner was an American Republican politician who served as the 25th Governor of Iowa from 1931 until 1933.
Milk fever, postparturient hypocalcemia, or parturient paresis is a disease, primarily in dairy cattle but also seen in beef cattle and non-bovine domesticated animals, characterized by reduced blood calcium levels (hypocalcemia). It occurs following parturition (birth), at onset of lactation, when demand for calcium for colostrum and milk production exceeds the body's ability to mobilize calcium. "Fever" is a misnomer, as the disease generally does not cause elevated body temperature. Milk fever is more commonly seen in older animals and in certain breeds.
Shambo was a black Friesian bull living in the interfaith Skanda Vale Temple near Llanpumsaint in Wales who had been adopted by the local Hindu community as a sacred animal. He came to public attention in April 2007, when a routine skin test for bovine tuberculosis tested positive, indicating he may have been in contact with the bacterium that causes the disease. As a result, the Welsh Government required that the bull be slaughtered. Skanda Vale disputed this and campaigned for a reprieve, expressing their belief that the sanctity of all life is the cornerstone of Hinduism. They were backed in this stance by the Hindu religious community at large. Farmers supported the Welsh Government's policy that cattle which tested positive to the skin test are culled in the interests of other local cattle.
The National Farmers Organization (NFO) is a producer movement founded in the United States in 1955, by farmers, especially younger farmers with mortgages, frustrated by too often receiving crop and produce prices that produced a living that paid less than the minimum wage, and could not even cover the cost of seed, fertilizer, land, etc. This was despite the many hours that was devoted by their entire family who often worked for free. This was despite mortgages they had to be pay even in years of drought, hail or other crop failure. It was despite too high injury rates related to lifting and too high mortality rates due to working with heavy, sharp equipment. The frustrated farmers, thus, tried to obtain better prices. At first their method included withholding of commodities from sale. Their early methods also included opposition to those coops unwilling to withhold goods from market. During protests, the farmers purposely sold food directly to neighbors instead of through the co-ops. They also destroy food in dramatic ways, in an attempt to gain media exposure, for example, slaughtering excess dairy cows. A 1964 incident brought negative attention when two members were crushed under the rear wheels of a cattle truck. They did not succeed in obtaining a Canadian-style quota system. Methods, thus, are different now.
The Hoard's Dairyman Farm, just north of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, was purchased in 1899 by W. D. Hoard, a former governor of Wisconsin. Hoard used the farm as a laboratory for testing ideas for his magazine Hoard's Dairyman, like the use of alfalfa for feeding dairy cattle.
Dairy farming in New Zealand began during the early days of colonisation by Europeans. The New Zealand dairy industry is based almost exclusively on cattle, with a population of 4.92 million milking cows in the 2019–20 season. The income from dairy farming is now a major part of the New Zealand economy, becoming an NZ$13.4 billion industry by 2017.
Cattle are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus Bos. Mature female cattle are called cows and mature male cattle are bulls. Young female cattle are called heifers, young male cattle are oxen or bullocks, and castrated male cattle are known as steers.
Oakhurst Dairy is a dairy company headquartered at 364 Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine, United States. It produces primarily dairy products as well as juices. Founded in 1918, it made headlines in 2003 when it was sued by agribusiness giant Monsanto over Oakhurst's label on its milk cartons that said "Our farmer's pledge: no artificial hormones," referring to the use of bovine somatotropin (rBST), a drug that increases milk production and that Monsanto sells. Monsanto argued that the label implied that Oakhurst milk was superior to milk from cows treated with rBST, which harmed Monsanto's business. Oakhurst was sold to Dairy Farmers of America, a national milk marketing cooperative based in Kansas City, Missouri in January 2014.
Badger culling in the United Kingdom is permitted under licence, within a set area and timescale, as a way to reduce badger numbers in the hope of controlling the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Humans can catch bTB, but public health control measures, including milk pasteurisation and the BCG vaccine, mean it is not a significant risk to human health. The disease affects cattle and other farm animals, some species of wildlife including badgers and deer, and some domestic pets such as cats. Geographically, bTB has spread from isolated pockets in the late 1980s to cover large areas of the west and south-west of England and Wales in the 2010s. Some people believe this correlates with the lack of badger control.
Charles Allen Cary (1861–1935) was born and educated in Iowa. He received the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Iowa State University in 1887. He did graduate work at the University of Missouri and in Germany. In 1892, Cary taught the first veterinary science course at the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Auburn University.
The Artificial Insemination Centre of Quebec (CIAQ) is a limited partnership society founded in 1948 located in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada with the mission of improving through artificial insemination bovine herds used in milk and meat production throughout the province. The CIAQ is currently the sole bovine sperm production facility in Quebec and is the property of the Milk Producers of Quebec (PLQ), the Quebec Council of Milk Producing Breeds (CQRL) and the Provincial Council of Cattle Amelioration Clubs (CPCAB).
Mycoplasma bovis is one of 126 species of genus Mycoplasma. It is the smallest living cell and anaerobic organism in nature. It does not contain any cell wall and is therefore resistant to penicillin and other beta lactam antibiotics.
John McDougal Russell Greig CBE FRSE MRCVS was a Scottish veterinarian who was Director of the Moredun Research Institute from 1930 to 1954. He is noted for the development of several important animal vaccines: Enzootic abortion in ewes; Braxy and Louping ill. His work on milk effectively created "clean milk" for the first time in Britain.
Geronimo was a stud alpaca that resided at Shepherds Close Farm in Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, England. After Geronimo tested positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a highly publicised controversy erupted surrounding his fate and the British government's policy of euthanising any animal that tested positive for bTB. After a number of court battles, Geronimo was euthanised.
Edwin George Hastings was an American professor of agricultural bacteriology, known for his work with Harry Luman Russell on bovine tuberculosis and applications of the tuberculin test to herds of cattle. Hastings was the president in 1923 of the American Society for Microbiology.