44 NEBRASKAland • DECEMBER 2018
thousands of acres of Sandhills prairie
have been converted to cropland under
pivot irrigation using water from the
underlying Ogallala Aquifer. Prairie on
the low, rolling dunes and sand flats of
the Sandhills' periphery has been most
susceptible to pivot development.
Located on the northern fringe of the
Sandhills, much of the Frank ranch was
suitable for pivots. In the 1970s, Dan's
great grandfather put in a few pivots on
several hundred acres of low pasture.
Beginning in the early 1980s, after
taking over the reins of the ranch after
the death of his grandfather,
Tom Frank added several more
pivots.
Tom had inherited only a small
portion of the ranch from his
grandfather, and he and Deb slowly
bought the remainder from relatives.
They also purchased other lands to add
to the ranch, some of which contained
pivots. By 2011, the Frank ranch
had 17 center pivots growing corn,
sudangrass, alfalfa, and soybeans to
feed their expanding cattle herd and for
market.
"One reason my parents put in and
farmed pivots is that they were buying
land from the mid-1980s through
the late 1990s," Frank said. "At the
time, increasing and diversifying their
income stream from strictly cattle to
include crops was crucial to help make
the land payments."
The farming, however, has had
environmental consequences. "Now,
because of farming in the area, we
can't drink our tap water due to high
nitrate levels," Frank said. "Sandhill
soils are nutrient poor and crops grown
on the pivots require much nitrogen
fertilizer. We have to apply about 200
pounds of nitrogen per acre to grow
A center-pivot irrigation system, once used to water crops, now stands idle on a prairie restoration on the Frank Ranch.
The pivot will eventually be removed.
