Iowa is a bit different than NY. It probably has a bit higher carrying capacity seeing how it is 90% agricultural (i am guessing - probably overestimating) and NY is 75% forested.

I don't doubt that people may not see as many deer (last year, year before, etc.) but next year you may (or year after that). Locals go through that. Populations are cyclical. If I based my hunting year on the season after the first to days of gun (which many may seeing how they don't get out until the 1st weekend) I would have said "there are no deer". We saw 0 deer from the second day till the end of gun. To many that means there are no deer, right. But we did have snow and the deer were there and lots of them - tracks everywhere. They did go nocturnal, in a big way! No factor in bow and ML and my overall season was great (oh, by the way, I didn't get a deer). Saw many nice bucks in bow and saw 15 deer on the ML weekend (and this is in a DMU - 7M - with a "low population", ie no DMP). The deer are there. Yes, some places may have lower numbers this year and last, but there are still deer there. Hunt hard, if you don't see deer, hunt harder.