Harold Murphy of Selden, Kansas, reads the Bible in the St. Martin’s church in Seguin, a town so small that it is not counted in the U.S. census. Born just 15 miles from Seguin, Murphy has farmed irrigated corn and soybeans, as well as dryland wheat, milo, and sunflowers in this area his entire life. “I think it is very likely that we will lose irrigation as we know it,” Murphy says. “I think it will happen even faster than what the state will say. They are saying we have 50 years, but I think it could be as soon as 10 years.” Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Grain bins rise behind St. Martin’s Church in Seguin, Kansas. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Mike Miller and his daughter, Kami, clear ice from a frozen water tank near Rexford, a town of 232 people in northwest Kansas. The Miller family farms corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat to help feed 150 head of cattle. “When I was a kid, they had us believing we would never run out of water,” Miller says. “If they take our irrigation away, I’ll just go back to dryland farming. That’s how it was in the beginning anyway. We can survive.” Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Livestock are a large part of the plains economy, totaling $US 12 billion in beef production in Kansas and Texas in 2010. Most of the grain grown in the region – and thus, most of the water – goes to cattle. In Texas, the industry imports two bushels of grain for every bushel produced by state farmers. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Kami Miller, 15, closes a fence to keep cattle on a cornfield near Rexford, Kansas. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Kaycee, 13, and Kami Miller, 15, close a barn door while doing chores on their parents’ farm near Rexford, a town of 232 people in northwest Kansas. The Miller family farms corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat to help feed 150 head of cattle. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

A donkey drinks water from an icy tank on the Miller family farm near Rexford, Kansas. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Kami Miller does chores on her parents’ farm near Rexford, a town of 232 people in northwest Kansas. Many small towns on the plains of western Kansas seem cut from the same agricultural cloth: a Main Street anchored by a grain elevator, a mom-and-pop cafe, and the local branch of the Farm Bureau. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Kami Miller pours feed into a trough on her parents’ farm near Rexford, a town of 232 people in northwest Kansas. The Miller family farms corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat to help feed 150 head of cattle. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

More than 56,000 cattle are housed at the Hoxie Feedyard in northwest Kansas. Most of the grain grown in the region – thus, most of the water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer – goes to cattle and hogs, a $US 5.7 billion industry in western Kansas. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Comparatively little water is used to operate a feed lot in the southern Great Plains. Direct water use – for livestock consumption, cleaning, and feed processing – is equal to 1 percent of the region’s irrigated acreage. Nearly all the water use is indirect, meaning that the water is used to grow the feed. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Cattle walk through a snowy cornfield near Seguin, Kansas. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

A 150,000-bushel corn pile worth roughly $US 627,000 sits outside of a home in Selden, Kansas, population 218. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

A birthday party for Stuart Beckman’s grandchildren at his home near Menlo, Kansas. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Stuart Beckman’s grandson Caden plays with a combine that he got for his birthday at Beckman’s home near Menlo, in northwest Kansas. Beckman and his fellow farmers in Sheridan County, Kansas, have agreed to reduce the amount of water that they draw from the Ogallala Aquifer, the region’s primary water supply. The farmers are conserving water from the shrinking underground reservoir so that it is still a viable resource when their grandchildren are old enough to drive real combines. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Stuart Beckman holds Keirra Tubbs, a family friend, next to his son Brent at the elder Beckman’s home near Menlo, Kansas. Beckman and other farmers in Sheridan County, Kansas, have agreed to reduce the amount of water that they draw from the Ogallala Aquifer, the region’s primary water supply, to preserve enough for their grandchildren. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Stuart Beckman (center) and his crew harvest irrigated corn in Thomas County, Kansas. Farmers in nearby Sheridan County have agreed to reduce the amount of water that they pump by 20 percent over the next five years in an attempt to slow the draining of the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest aquifer in the United States and the primary source of water for the Great Plains. Beckman also farms in Sheridan County, where he will be subjected to the pumping restrictions. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Stuart Beckman (center) takes a break with his crew at the Menlo Co-op in Menlo, Kansas. Beckman asserts that farmers in his area are some of the most progressive around. They need to be, in order to protect their livelihood. “Without irrigation, this community would dry up and blow away,” Beckman says. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Doug Delaplane is the lead farmer for a large farm corporation near Ulysses, Kansas. “It’s a way of life,” Delaplane says. “If I couldn’t farm, I’d rather be six-foot under.” Diminishing reserves of water in the Ogallala Aquifer, the primary water source on the Great Plains, is threatening that way of life for many small communities. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Doug Delaplane, the lead farmer for a large farm corporation near Ulysses, Kansas, checks his phone on the back of his pickup. “It’s a way of life,” Delaplane says. “If I couldn’t farm, I’d rather be six-foot under.” Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Hydro Resources, a well-drilling contractor, works around the clock to punch new holes in the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas. The Ogallala, the primary water source in the Great Plains, is declining because billions of gallons are pumped out each year to irrigate corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Gonzalo Alcantar of Hydro Resources, a well-drilling business, guides a large pipe into place so the rig can drill a 205-meter (672-foot) well near Sublette, Kansas. Hydro Resources drills new wells into the Ogallala Aquifer, the main water source for the Great Plains. Dry wells are endemic because the aquifer is shrinking due to the water demands of millions of acres of irrigated corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Gonzalo Alcantar of Hydro Resources makes sure that a large pipe is lifted correctly off a truck before being used in the construction of a 205-meter (672-foot) well to tap the Ogallala Aquifer near Sublette, Kansas. The Ogallala, the primary water source in the Great Plains, is declining because billions of gallons are pumped out each year to irrigate corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Water spurts from a fresh well near Sublette, Kansas. Hydro Resources, a well-drilling contractor, works around the clock to punch new holes in the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas. The Ogallala, the primary water source in the Great Plains, is declining because billions of gallons are pumped out each year to irrigate corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

A construction crew carves out a 10-kilometer (six-mile) trench through fields in Lincoln County, Nebraska. The $US 120 million pipeline project will help Nebraska comply with the Republican River Compact, which requires the state to deliver water each year to Kansas, located downstream. Widespread groundwater pumping in Nebraska has reduced the river’s flow. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Nebraska irrigates more farmland than any U.S. state. Most of that water comes from the Ogallala Aquifer. Voracious pumping from the aquifer has caused the amount of water flowing into the Republican River to decline, putting Nebraska in violation of an interstate water-sharing agreement. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Stepping into daylight, Jose Gerardo Martinez, a construction worker, emerges from a 1.5-meter (60-inch) diameter tunnel inside the trench. Once completed early this year, the tunnel will support a section of the 10-kilometer (six-mile) pipeline that will help Nebraska meet its legal obligation to deliver water to Kansas, located downstream. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

No more corn will be grown in these fields in Lincoln County, Nebraska. A pipeline will link the wells, formerly used to irrigate corn, to Medicine Creek, a Republican River tributary. The $US 120 million project will help Nebraska comply with the 1943 Republican River Compact, which requires the state to deliver sufficient amounts of water each year to Kansas, located downstream. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

With a steady hand, Sam Dominguez guides a pipe, 1.07 meters (42 inches) in diameter, into a trench under construction in Lincoln County, Nebraska. In 2012, four local resource management districts bought a 7,891-hectare (19,500-acre) farm for the water that lies beneath it. In dry years, the districts will pump water from the Ogallala Aquifer and put it into the Republican River to deliver to Kansas. A massive expansion of irrigated agriculture in southern Nebraska has reduced the river’s flow, putting Nebraska in violation of an interstate water compact. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

A golden circle, this one near Edson, Kansas, is the tell-tale sign of an irrigated corn field ready for harvest. Farmers in the Great Plains produce some of the highest corn yields in the world, thanks in part to abundant water supplies from the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer, however, is draining away because more water is pumped out than filters back in. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Farmers in the Great Plains produce some of the world’s highest corn yields thanks to water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest underground source of freshwater in the United States. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Farmers are in the field from dawn to dusk during harvest season. Stuart Beckman’s field in Thomas County produced 198 bushels per acre, well above the state average of 125 bushels per acre in 2013. Irrigation, using water from the Ogallala Aquifer, allows farmers to grow three to four times as much grain per acre compared to a field that relies solely on rainfall. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Grain is the economic fulcrum for towns that dot the Great Plains. But growing the millions of bushels of corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat is slowly draining the region’s primary water source, the Ogallala Aquifer. Unless consumption rates change, some prime farming regions in Kansas and Texas have only a few decades of water remaining. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.

Corns cobs pop like Champagne corks out the back of a combine that is harvesting a Kansas corn field. Photos © Brian Lehmann / Circle of Blue. Click image to enlarge.