Back From the Brink, Farm Couple Rebuilds After Hurricane Devastation

Brandon and Danielle Vail, a husband and wife farm team in the teeth of hurricane country.
Brandon and Danielle Vail, a husband and wife farm team in the teeth of hurricane country.
(Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

Sky darkens, rain pours, wind blows and a hurricane roars, leaving in its wake mangled buildings, roofless grain bins, and uprooted foundation pillars. Barns, shops, equipment—gone. In 2020, Brandon Vail’s farm life was rolled by devastation on a grand scale. Pile on a truck accident from which he crawled from a crushed tin can to survive by a wafer-thin margin—and the pill of 2020 is all the more bitter.

Yet, mettle takes the day. Knocked to the mat in 2020, Vail found his feet, emblematic of the resilience of Louisiana farmers forced to reckon with another wrecking ball. Farming just 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in the teeth of hurricane country, battling saltwater creep and mosquito plagues, Vail is pushing back with grit against the elements. He will rebuild. “I belong here on this dirt,” he says. “I belong.”

“Get It Right”

A fifth-generation grower, Vail began planting on his own at 13, and 2020 marked his twenty-first crop. His forefathers, originally farming stock from Germany and Ukraine, moved from Kansas to the Pelican State in 1917, drawn by relatively cheap land.

 

BRANDON AND DANIELLE
“You better believe it’s a business, and that’s how I run my operation, but the truth is I can’t describe how much I love being out in the dirt,” says Brandon. (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

Vail farms in low-lying, open country connected by a network of bayous, and the majority of his fields are roughly 5-10’ above sea level. Located on Louisiana’s heel, within a stone’s throw of the Gulf in Calcasieu Parish, much of his soil is poor, and he put in tremendous labor transforming and shaping the land: “A lot of my ground is stuff that was let go by others, and the soil isn’t so good. Most of it hadn’t been ditched in five or six years, and people had just been running cows on it, not interested in getting water off or dealing with weeds.”

When tackling the newly acquired ground, he built access roads and turnarounds to ensure load-out with trailers, and laser leveled to make bigger cuts and increase equipment efficiency. “In the old days, guys would go in with a blade, disc once, put some water on it and slush it up, fly rice across, and a lot of the time cut it wet,” Vail describes. “That left me dealing with combine ruts steady at 2.5’ deep, and it takes a while to get it all back level and get it right.”

Angels and Devils

Stated plainly, crop diversity does not always make economic sense, at least on Vail’s farm. His operation is based entirely on rice and cattle. Years in the past, Vail’s father, Mark, passed on blunt advice: “Stick to rice and cows on this ground.”

At university and beyond, Vail listened to countless professionals promote diversity. He followed conventional wisdom, trying corn, crawfish, grain sorghum, sesame, soybeans, and wheat—all to little gain. “If I’d have stuck with rice and cows,” he chuckles, “I’d sure have more money right now, but at least I tried and I can tell you why certain things won’t pencil out here. If the prices were high enough, I could grow some alternative crops, but you’ve got to catch the right year and that is too risky. I’m not saying I won’t try corn and soybeans again, but I’m saying I won’t right now.”

 

VAIL'S HORSEBACK
“I learned when people show up with food or diesel, that it comes from their heart,” says Brandon. “I learned to appreciate help, and I know a time is coming when I’ll be the one helping others again.” (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

In most years, rice affords Vail two cuttings. Roughly a week after the midpoint of July, his first cutting averages 35-45 barrels to the acre and is completed by the third week of August. He then bush-hogs, drops fertilizer, floods, and waits for the ratoon crop—likely 40% of whatever the first crop yielded. (Usually, he cuts 75-80% of his rice acreage as a ratoon crop.) Rice, in Vail’s locale, has significant advantages: “We’re in a corner away from major retailers, but we’ve got great access to rice seed and fertilizer. For corn, beans and wheat, it’s different story on varieties and selection.”

Currently dependent on canals for water, Vail hopes to apply for NRCS cost-share in order to implement underground irrigation. Saltwater inundation is a major agronomic thorn for Vail, due to proximity from the Calcasieu Lock of just 9 miles: If surface water comes up through the shipping channel and into the lock system, Vail (along with three other producers) is among the first to catch saltwater. In addition, anytime a hurricane brings a saltwater surge, the salt tends to remain in his soil for extended time, partly due to the nature of his ground—6” to 2’ of topsoil atop a hard clay pan. “Any salt that doesn’t wash out immediately leaves you with a salt effect for a couple years to come,” Vail explains. “It takes a year to three years to completely filter out to where you can go back to planting rice there. We had the issue after Hurricane Ike (2008). We had several fields that took three years before they quit showing dead spots.”

Despite agronomic hardship, Vail has multiple marketing options, and he is ideally located close to a major shipping point for rice, 9 miles from the Port of Lake Charles: Essentially, all southwest Louisiana mills send sack rice through the port. Vail is a member of Lacassine Rail Facility group, a rough rice exporting company that loads paddy rice onto ocean-going vessels headed to Latin America. “Being so close to shipping channels, I’ve got more options than what people might have in the Mississippi Delta or in Arkansas. I’m not stuck with just buyers on the river. In a normal year I have three options, or even four, if I want to send rice to Beaumont, Texas.”

 

AERIAL FARM
In the days prior to Laura’s arrival, Vail gave no thought to running for safe ground; an exit wasn’t an option. “We stayed because of our cattle,” he explains. (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

As with many farmers across the U.S., farm labor is a tricky puzzle for Vail. With numerous petrochemical industrial plants in southwest Louisiana, farm work for $15 per hour doesn’t have much pull. However, the H-2A program provides an overall answer, according to Vail: “H-2A is not the easiest program, but once you find the right guys, it’s excellent. Anyone who says I got H-2A because the labor is cheap is dead wrong. It costs me more to have H-2A guys, and pay housing and vehicles, than I’d pay with local labor. But my H-2A guys, Jose and Junior, show up every day with a good attitude, and they like the work. They’re a father-and-son team who’ve been with me several years and they are wonderful guys.”

As with any agriculture outfit in any state, Vail’s operation inherently possesses advantages and disadvantages, the angels and devils of farming. Specifically, Vail is perpetually in the path of tropical storms and hurricane hell.

Pan to Fire

On Aug. 27, 2020, four days after Vail’s first rice crop was binned, Hurricane Laura struck Louisiana, throwing off tornadoes and unleashing havoc. (All told, Laura would inflict $14-plus billion in damage and claim 77 lives across several states.)

In the days prior to Laura’s arrival, Vail gave no thought to running for safe ground; an exit wasn’t an option. “We stayed because of our cattle,” Vail explains. “If a surge came, we’d have to move the cattle to fresh water. If no surge came, we’d have to mend fence.”

 

DANIELLE, BRANDON, FARM DOG
“The first thing after the storm wasn’t to tend to the house,” Danielle says, “it was to make sure our livestock were unharmed and didn’t need medical attention, fix water wells so our livestock had fresh water, and fix fences so they weren’t roaming the roads.” (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

Vail and his wife, Danielle, hunkered down at his parent’s home, a quarter mile across the fields, alongside Jose, Junior, Vail’s sisters, and a neighbor. Physically safe behind concrete walls, Vail listened to tornadic winds tear apart his operation. The aftermath was ruin.

Beyond the catastrophic damage, the greatest initial difficulty was dealing with overwhelming uncertainty, Danielle explains. “Can we move forward after this and will we? If we do, where do we start? It hits a bit different when there is more than just a homestead to worry about.”

Indeed. Roughly 2,000 acres of cropland and pasture, 300 head of cattle, hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, tens of thousands of dollars in hay, multiple farm buildings and dwellings, leased and owned grain bins, and untold miles of fencing. In summary, every facet of their lives took a direct hit from Hurricane Laura.

“The first thing after the storm wasn’t to tend to the house,” Danielle says, “it was to make sure our livestock were unharmed and didn’t need medical attention, fix water wells so our livestock had fresh water, and fix fences so they weren’t roaming the roads.”

The physical damage was numbing: A stout, metal frame hay barn, just erected in May, was wrapped around tractors and hay equipment, with its concrete pylons (24” diameter and 5’ deep) pulled out of the ground. A 32’ steel culvert (10’ diameter, weighing roughly 15,000 lb.) went airborne over three gooseneck trailers, and above a fence, landing 800’ to the north of Vail’s house. “My house made it through Hurricane Rita with no problem, but this time the trusses were ripped from the south end, the roof torn off, front porch gone, and water damage throughout,” Vail describes.

The list of damaged or totaled items was numbing: 30’ x 60’ barn near house, gone; 40’ x 70’ barn, gone; hay barn with 400 bales, gone; 60’x80’ equipment shed, gone; main shop requires a 1/3 new roof; 150’ corral barn lost two 20’ wings and needs new skin; horse barn requires a new roof and back wall.

Additionally, six grain bins lost roofs; another bin lost grain through a gaping hole opened when heavy winds turned a trailer into a projectile; several augers totaled; three tractors damaged; and extensive damage to a vast array of other equipment.

Vail carried 80% field crop insurance coverage, but also had content insurance on the bins. “Bin insurance is something some guys get, and some don’t,” Vail notes. “Some guys can’t get it because their bins are company owned. Louisiana insurance is set up so if there is no structure insurance on bins, then you can’t get content insurance. My mindset is always do anything to get a crop in the bin because it better insured in bins than the field.”

 

BRANDON VAIL SOLO
“I could walk away and make more money by running equipment, but I belong here,” Vail says. “There is no better job to me than farming.” (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

Extending Vail’s losses, plagues of mosquito swarms followed behind Laura, in phenomenal numbers heavy enough to affect livestock production. One bull and four cows died in a particular herd: “People think the death is from blood loss or smothering on the swarms, but that’s not what killed the cattle. It’s exhaustion and stress from being worn out by the mosquitoes. It’s almost something you have to see to believe.”

Every aspect of Vail’s operation was upended by Hurricane Laura, throwing his farming future into doubt. Pan to fire, one week later—it got worse.

A Time is Coming

On Sept. 2, at 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, Vail was driving between farm locations, checking water levels on his second rice crop. Pulling a 4-wheeler on a utility trailer with a single cab 2003 F-250, Vail began crossing a state highway with right-of-way, and caught the blur of an oncoming truck speeding past a stop sign. “I hit the gas to try and escape, but there was nothing I could do and he hit me just behind the cab on the passenger side. I’d estimate he was going about 65-70 miles per hour.”

Vail’s truck flipped, broke from the trailer, and shot across a ditch into a field, landing upright 100’ from the collision, still running. The truck was demolished; Vail was alive, despite an unbuckled seatbelt. He was airlifted to Lafayette with internal bleeding, broken ribs, cracked vertebrate, severe abrasions, and multiple gashes.

An extremely difficult crop season was punctuated with a near-death accident, and the one-two punch almost pushed Vail past a breaking point. “Right after Laura, I remember looking at the destruction and deciding whether to rebuild. Then coming within inches of losing my life just added layers to a farming situation that was already so difficult.”

 

VAIL TRAILING
“We’ll rebuild. We’ll stick with it. Farming is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Brandon says. (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

Enter Danielle. “She was right there encouraging me when I needed it the most. She plays such a big part in my success that it’s hard to explain. When I got down, Danielle was my biggest support, and I wish every guy could have a wife like her.”

After watching the Vail farming operation pushed to the brink of collapse, Danielle faced an ordeal with far heavier consequences: “The accident was a huge shock,” she exclaims. “It’s not something you ever want to happen, but the fact that it happened exactly a week after the storm felt like such a low blow.”

“I was already mentally and physically drained from trying to pick up our lives, literally, but I knew I had to keep my head up and stay strong for Brandon’s mental state,” she continues. “He’s not the kind of person to ‘take it easy’ and I knew I’d have to keep his spirits up in order to keep him somewhat grounded. There was so much that needed to be done and it was eating away at him that he couldn’t physically help.”

As Vail’s body began to mend from the accident, his mental determination to rebuild grew in tandem. Vail won’t see any financial profit from 2020, but he will pay off his farm loan, and get back in the fields for 2021, hopeful of better days on the horizon. “We’ll rebuild. We’ll stick with it. Farming is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Vail says. “You better believe it’s a business, and that’s how I run my operation, but the truth is I can’t describe how much I love being out in the dirt.”

And no understands or appreciates Vail’s love of farming more than Danielle. “For Brandon, if he isn’t farming then he isn’t living. Brandon could be having the worst day possible, but if I were to ask him to explain part of the operation to me in detail, his eyes will light up and pride will shine through as he doesn’t miss a beat in his narrative.”

Danielle wasn’t raised in agriculture, but her heart has taken root on the Vail farmland. “Everything was new to me when I started dating Brandon, but I have enjoyed every aspect of this lifestyle. Even out of the bad comes good, in my opinion; it gives us a chance to learn and grow. Farming and ranching forces you to be humble, because nothing is guaranteed, and that is exactly what the hurricane has taught us. It’s not the easiest to want to continue some days but it’s all worth it down the road.”

“I could walk away and make more money by running equipment, but I belong here,” Vail echoes. “There is no better job to me than farming. If I’ve got farming and Danielle, then that’s all the motivation I need to do anything, even when these tough times hit.”

And Vail’s motivation to succeed caught an explosive boost following the truck wreck, the very afternoon Danielle brought him home from the hospital, in the form of unexpected news. Even for a couple navigating uncertainty and rebuilding, and living in a one-bedroom shop apartment, the news was a most welcomed surprise, Danielle explains: “I found out the day I brought Brandon home that I was five weeks pregnant—after five years of trying to start a family. I wouldn’t want to raise my kids around anything else other than the farm life, and now that we finally have the chance to plant the passion seed into our first child, it’s even more of a precious lifestyle. Brandon’s eyes light up, and tear up sometimes, when he hears me talking about our operation. Imagine how bright they will shine when his child starts doing the same thing.”

 

VAIL COUPLE FINAL PHOTO
“Farming and ranching forces you to be humble, because nothing is guaranteed, and that is exactly what the hurricane has taught us,” says Danielle. (Photo by Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation)

 

“We are both ecstatic, and we keep saying God has a sense of humor,” Danielle adds. “I know he wouldn’t have given us this miracle at this time if he didn’t know we could handle it.”

And among the many lessons Vail has handled in 2020, he says pushing away pride is paramount. “I learned that I have to stay in prayer and keep the faith. People reached out to us when things were at their worst, and help is not something I was used to taking from anyone. I learned when people show up with food or diesel, that it comes from their heart. I learned to appreciate help, and I know a time is coming when I’ll be the one helping others again.”

For questions or to read more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com), see:

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