The Associated Press

HOLDREGE — U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne says farmers can do more to maximize the use of depleted irrigation reservoirs than just enrolling acres in federally funded conservation programs.

Osborne, speaking this past week to the Central District Water Users, said one alternative is to plant crops that don't require as much water as corn and soybeans.

Sorghum, for example, uses 30 percent to 40 percent less water, Osborne said, and problems with crop insurance qualifications have been resolved. Osborne said he learned from staff at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff that Panhandle farmers are planting more wheat and using pivot irrigation systems to give the crop "one shot of water" in June.

Sunflowers are netting some farmers $125 per acre when irrigated at the right time, Osborne said. Other farmers are converting the lower 20 percent of their gravity-irrigated fields to dryland corn, sunflowers or sorghum, he said.

Osborne urged south-central Nebraska farmers who aren't already using no-till to do so for water savings while also taking advantage of surge valves and other irrigation water management technologies. Osborne also said farmers should consider land uses that don't involve crops or irrigation.

He pointed out that some landowners in South Dakota are commanding hunting fees of $150 per gun per day. Multiply that by 15 to 20 days and four or five hunters a day, "and that's a pretty good source of revenue."

Hunting probably will be allowed under the proposed Nebraska Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, he added.

One of his in-state ag specialists, Bob Bettger of Fairmont, has been discussing the hunting opportunities with landowners, especially those in the Republican Basin.