TOLEDO, Iowa – Eric Lyon stands in a massive dairy barn in eastern Iowa that until recently held about 320 cows.
The third-generation Iowa dairy farmer began selling off his family's purebred Jersey herd a year ago, ending 95 years of milking.
He no longer could wait for relief from a punishing downturn that has hit America's dairy industry.
"It was a hard decision," Lyon said, especially for his 90-year-old father, Joe, whose late wife, Norma "Duffy" Lyon, made the family famous by sculpting the popular butter cow at the Iowa State Fair for close to 50 years.
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