Gary Brandt runs Cooperative Producers Inc., a farmer-owned co-op serving central Nebraska since 1906.
Co-ops sit upstream of the financial system. They spot shifts in prepay behavior, input orders, and accounts receivable weeks before that data ever hits a commercial loan officer’s desk.
In this episode, Gary joins Dr. Ernie Goss and Andrew Hoover to lay out the numbers driving rural anxiety today. They break down the friction points for the 2026 crop season: thousand-dollar nitrogen, sub-five-dollar corn, surging land rents, and why farmers are intentionally slowing down their loan draws while they wait for July rain.
May 2026 Rural Mainstreet Index highlights:
Overall index: 45.7, fourth straight month below growth neutral
Equipment sales: 18.2, 33rd consecutive month of decline
Loan volume: 67.4, rising
Confidence: 34.8, falling
Nebraska RMI: 51.4, the only state in the ten-state region still above growth neutral
Watch the full conversation above.
Hosted by Andrew Hoover
Produced at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business / MCEI
