HUSA Aug 31 2026 - Brandon Roland

We're talking to Brandon Roland. Hemingford, Nebraska. Now I saw something the other day on social media somewhere that the Ogallala Aquifer is shrinking, going down. What do people do just...   "Water regulations. It's all regulated through the state and guys have to basically decide which pivots they even want to keep running for their water allegation. So they can't go to any deeper with their well and expect to hit more water? Nope, and they aren't even allowed to. In my county as well, you can't put out a new irrigation. Basically, you had to be grandfathered in. There's no more drilling."   All things being said, how's the water quality? Has always been pretty good?   "Been pretty good, but guys are starting to get really worried for how much water they've been putting on and water allocations where this year for guys that have been putting on the water this heavy this year, they don't know for sure how much they'll even get for next year on it. There's a lot of pivot ground that I've heard that's only been ran through maybe once or twice where they've been shut off on waters and guys have picked and choose which wells they wanted to run."   When that happens, you have to go more to...   "More drought resistant crops is what you're trying to hope for."   Milo?   "We don't raise very much milo in this country. It gets too cold too quick. Our environment's just not quite right for it."   So it's cold in the fall?   "Can get cold real quick in the fall. You just don't have the growing season. A couple guys have tried it once or twice and it just never really works out."   Hemingford, Nebraska's Brandon Roland with our co-host David Woodruff.   That's it for today's Harvest USA report. Thanks again for listening and may God bless.   I'm Brian Hale.