Drought turns once fertile grasslands into desert

(24 Jan 2009) SHOT LIST
Stroeder, Southern Buenos Aires province. January 20, 2009
1. Wide Shot of dawn over countryside (mute)
2. Pull up from cracked land and bones to pile of the remains of dead cows in the fields of farmer Hilda Schneider
3. Wide shot of dead cow in field
4. Pan of dead of pile of dead cows
5. Close-up of dead cow's head
6. Wide Shot of farmer Hilda Schneider on the standing next to the pile of dead cows.
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Hilda Schneider, farmer:
"The drought has become unbearable. The animals were so hungry that they would pack together and even if we'd give them more than one roll of weed they would all go for the first one and run over it. The ones who would get on the roll first, would have the time to bite it ones before the others would run over them and they would not get up again. Once a cow is down it does not ever get back up."
8. Wide shot of calves over dry land at Hilda Schneider's farm
9. Mid shot of thin calves at Hilda Schneider's farm
10. Wide shot of calves over dry land at Hilda Schneider's farm
Stroeder January 19, 2009
11. Various wide shots of a small whirl wind pulling up dust from dry lands
12. Close up of ribs of a dead cow silhouetted against sun
13. Mid shot of a dead cow covered with sand on the fields of farmer Elbio Malarieta
14. Close up of cow's foot covered with sand
15. Mid shot of dead cow covered with sand
16. Wide shot of Elbio Mararieta walking towards remains of dead cows
17. Mid Shot of Elbio Mararieta standing by remains of dead cows
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elbio Malarieta, farmer:
"I have lost 900 animals of the 4000 we have here. So we are talking roughly of a percentage of 25% when the normal death rate of cows is of 5% when the field conditions are normal."
19. Wide shot of dead cow with trees and windmill in background
20. Close up of skull of dead cow
21. Wide shot of cows bodies lined up over dry land
22. Close up pan of heads of dead cows
Stroeder, January 20, 2009
23. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Juan Carlos Maas, Vet, farmer and member of the local rural association:
"The process of desertification seriously alarming. The lack of rains means that the natural fauna which would normally cover the fields does not grow. This means that cattle have nothing to eat. The lack of rain usually coincides with stronger and drier winds. It is the combination of these two conditions that makes the fields erode."
Stroeder, January 19, 2009
24. Pan of dry fields covered with sand to fence with farmhouse in background
25. Wide shot of fence with sand covered fields either side with farmhouse in background
26. Low wide shot of rocks on sand covered field by fence
27. Close up pan of dry plants over sand field
28. Wide shot of cattle in the distance on dry land
29. Wide shot of sand dune over a field
30. Pan of un-harvested wheat field
31. Mid shot of of wheat grains that have not grown well because of drought
32. Close-up of wheat grains silhouetted against sun.
33. Close up of wheat grain head moving in the wind
34. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Vittorio Vavrin, 78 year old farmer from the Stroeder area:
"We are all in the same condition. We come from a series of 4 bad years in which we have barely harvested but the last 2 have been terrible and the last one just dreadful."
35. Close up of wheat grain moving in the wind
36. Wide shot of sunset over wheat fields
Buenos Aires, January 21, 2009
37. Mid Shot of Liliana Nunez, Meteorologist, head of the Meteo-Farm department of the Argentine National Meteo Service, at her desk
38. Close up of Liliana Nunez
Stroeder, January 20, 2009
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