I'll second that one! If you're not related to the landowner your not getting on too many farms. Farmers in NE Iowa have seen it all over the past 30-40 years. I don't know of any willing to take a chance on a stranger anymore.
I can say with great certainty that there ARE areas in Iowa where there are enough NRLO's,
and also resident LO's, that restrict access on their land to such a point that it "bumps" other hunters. Through the years there has been enough "bumping" now, in
some areas, that there really aren't any "open doors" left, at least for good quality, relatively uninterfered with hunting.
BTW, I do not count the farmers that invite everyone in the gas station or restaurant to come out to their place and "shoot them all" because they don't want their crops decimated. While there are situations like this to be found, unlimited, "shoot them all" access is not likely to produce what almost all of us on this site would like to have...high quality hunting opportunities for big bucks. (There is one guy here that will happily shoot does and eat their guts, but suffice to say, that is not the norm.
)
Although I now own land of my own, I myself experienced this several times in the past and know of several people that have experienced the same. I cannot say how it is everywhere in the state, but in some of the prime big buck territories it progressed to this point a long time ago. That does not necessarily mean that no one can gain permission anywhere in the state, but to deny this effect is just simply incorrect.
Interestingly...I know one particular NR, not a landowner in Iowa, that I keep in touch with every year and he recently told me that he was going to lease a farm in my general area because he could no longer get permission to a farm worth his hunting time. (This is in SE Iowa.)
He knows he will only draw a tag every third year or so, but having access to a high quality area, without other hunter interference, is important enough to him that this is the route he plans on taking. BTW, this guy scouts and shed hunts more in my area, while living out of state, than I do. He is a serious, committed big buck hunter who could probably recite the names of 20-30 landowners, probably more, and why they don't allow him to hunt, etc. Why, if it was so easy to get on quality ground, would he do this? He used to have near exclusive access to multiple high quality farms for archery hunting, most within a short radius around my ground.
The problem is not the NR hunter so much as it is that people have bought ground, or leased it, to such extent in SOME areas that access is restricted to other Iowans. If NRLO's could get guaranteed buck tags every year there are MANY people that understand this whole dynamic well enough to know that the ACCESS issue would escalate even further, and quickly.