He gets a charge out of climbing in every combine and peeking inside the huge grain wagons parked at the fairgrounds. People keep talking about family farms and about saving the family farm. It's gone already. It's just gone. The changes in agriculture are siphoning the traditional lifeblood from small towns - young farmers and their families.
Rural experts predict the worst fate for Iowa towns that have relied on agriculture.
In reality, a scarce few Iowa towns have died - four in the past decade, according to census figures. Many, indeed, have withered. In those places, little but the grain elevator, post office and perhaps a tavern remain. Between 1980 and 1990, a period when thousands of Iowans lost their farms, small towns lost their people. Iowa's overall population is among the slowest-growing in the nation.