F4F w/ Brandon Hunnicutt - Deeply Rooted in Technology

Brandon Hunnicutt works with his father and brother on land that has been in his family for nearly 120 years. As a 5th generation Nebraska farmer, his days are packed with farm responsibilities, yet he finds time to serve on the National Corn Growers Association and Nebraska Checkoff boards, act as chair of Field to Market, and chase around his seven kids. He’s also learning as much as he can about carbon and sustainability. ​“And when I’m really bored, I start learning about blockchain, because why not?” he laughs.

Today, Brandon’s farm grows corn, popcorn, soybeans, and seed corn. Giltner, Nebraska, where Hunnicutt Farms is located, is a good area for corn. In fact, Nebraska is the Cornhusker State for a reason — the state ranks third in the nation for corn production overall, and first in popcorn. 

Although the farm has been operating for over a century, the challenges Brandon and his family face today are very different from past decades. Not too long ago, cross-pollination and herbicide drift weren’t understood as serious issues, and many growers didn’t think about an insecticides’ ability to kill everything in a field — harmful or not — from an environmental perspective. Today, concerns about the environment and climate change play a much larger role in farm operations and Brandon has seen the focus shift to the broader environmental impact of these practices.“ These are nuances that growers weren’t thinking about even 25 years ago,” he says.