1.   An increasing number of grain farmers, according to the Agriculture Department, are taking the partial step of signing forward contracts.

2.   Canadian grain farmers are required to sell only to the Canadian Wheat Board, a national monopoly which controls the purchase, sale and export of wheat and barley.

3.   Critics of industrialization say Midwest grain farmers need look only at the pork industry to see how drastic the changes could be.

4.   Customers ranging from grain farmers to petrochemical producers revolted, sending their products via trucks instead.

5.   Domestically, depressed grain prices have led grain farmers in the Dakotas to grow sugar beets instead.

6.   Farmers there have reported high winds blowing stunted or tender plants right out of some fields, said Kenneth Keisling, a grain farmer near Dumas in the Panhandle.

7.   Few experts, however, expect grain farmers to become as tied to production contracts as the pork operators have.

8.   For example, a grain farmer could sign a contract in the spring to sell corn at harvest time to a grain elevator.

9.   Grain farmers can expect to pay less for fertilizer, because natural gas is a major component.

10.   Grain farmers say they need shelter from the cold winds of the free market and the multinational grain companies.