milo reno, a fiery activist and former president of the iowa farmers union, called for a strike, a "holidayirst strike target was set -- sioux city, iowa. here the milk producers' association joined forces with reno's newly formed farm holiday association. what did the dairymen hope to accomplish? each individual dairy farmer thought that if he could just deprive the milk dealer of his milk supply for a while, that the milk dealer would come, be easy to deal with, come to terms at a higher price for the dairy farmer. schoumacher: the line was drawn. the strikers formed their gauntlet through which the truckers had to pass. and violence ruled. george mills, an iowa journalist who covered the milk strike, comments. the pickets were out on the road to prevent that load of milk being delivered to the distributors in sioux city. the pickets were armed. so was the milk hauler and his sons. the pickets had placed telephone poles and railroad ties and things of that sort on the road. obstructions of one sort or another. and the milk hauler was a fellow by the name of r.d. markell, got out. he was a