In St. Martin Parish, a new generation helps usher the family cane business into its next era

Story by Alena Maschke 

​Sitting on the combine, the Blanchard family’s youngest son, Blaine, easily switches between talking to his dad and uncle who are out in the field with him, and using the rudimentary Spanish he’s picked up to coordinate with the seasonal workers who pick up the harvest.
 
Blaine Blanchard, 23, and his brother Brayden, 26, are continuing the family tradition of cane farming in St. Martin Parish in the fifth generation. Using their individual talents, they are poised to take over the family business and are already working to bring the operation into a new era.
 
As a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Blaine quickly realized that sitting in a classroom wasn’t for him. He remembered his great grandfather, who was still helping out in the fields at 102 years old, and his grandfather, who can still be found roaming the family cane fields every day. “When I was young, I'd always come to work with my dad,” Blaine said. Now an adult, “I liked the idea of the farm and I wanted to give it a try.”
 
Eager to ensure the family business’ survival for generations to come, Blaine is part of working out the kinks of a new system the family is trying. Instead of the traditional 6-foot-wide beds, the Blanchard family is planting their sugarcane in 8-foot-wide beds, a change they hope will increase efficiency and create cost savings.
 
Fuel and labor are among the highest expenses for cane farmers and the faster turnaround on wider rows has the potential to save on both. But the change isn’t without its challenges. When the engine blew on one of the family’s combine’s last year, it couldn’t be easily replaced — traditional machinery is set up to harvest the narrower beds. 
 
Collaboration and assistance is common among cane farmers, Blaine said, but because of their new setup, “nobody else could come help us.”
 
But despite those challenges, “it's worked great for us so far,” he noted. 
 
For this season, the family bought an additional combine to ensure they wouldn’t lose out on any harvesting time should one of their existing ones go down. Blaine estimates that by planting on wider beds, the family saves roughly 30% of runs up and down the field for planting, fertilizing and harvesting — on 3,700 acres, that spells significant cost savings down the line. 
 
The increased efficiency also means that the family can be more self-sufficient. Should they, for example, be unable to hire seasonal workers from abroad one season, Blaine said he’s confident that the family could still meet their quotas with the labor on hand, something he considers a direct result of the more efficient process they’ve implemented.
 
Blaine’s father first learned about this different way of planting on a trip down to South Texas, where farmers were already experimenting with it. Few farmers in Louisiana were willing to take on the upfront investment and labor it takes to convert their farms to the new system, in part because it requires longevity to pay off. 
 
“A lot of people that are in the farming industry, their sons don't want anything to do with it,” Blaine said. Without a new generation to carry on the torch, the investment is unlikely to be worth it, leading many Louisiana farmers to carry on as usual instead.
 
For the Blanchard sons, the continuation of the family business is a point of pride. While Blaine prefers the hands-on, dust-in-the-air, cane-cutting side of things in the field, his brother Brayden has dedicated himself to improving the product the family can plant in their fields in the future.
 
As a research assistant at the LSU AgCenter’s Sugar Research Station, Brayden works to optimize cane varieties through scientific breeding. 
 
“Something that we as breeders aim for in new varieties is longevity, multiple harvests,” Brayden said. More longevity and multiple harvests means less time and money spent planting, another way of saving costs and increasing the yield on money already spent. In addition to that, Brayden and his team also breed for increased resilience to cold temperatures and disease, further increasing yield potential and consistency.
 
André Blanchard, the boys’ father who currently co-owns the farm with his brother-in-law and nephew, said Brayden’s teachers and professors tried to encourage his son to take his talents to the medical field. “He wouldn’t even consider it,” André Blanchard said.
 
The survival of the farm and the local industry at large is what motivated Brayden to go into this field of research once he started college. “​​I started on the farm,” he said. “I figured I won't be at home on the farm anymore, but that was my way to continue and make an impact.”
 
This year’s harvest has been strong according to Blaine, aided by favorable climate conditions. 
 
“We had rain when we needed rain, and we had dryness when we needed dryness,” he noted. Planting was completed in record time, he added, and the sugar cane currently in the field is healthy and strong. Quotas at the mill have been strong too, a result of investments made by the co-op, which the family is a part of, Blaine pointed out.
 
André Blanchard, 54, said he’s proud beyond words that his sons and nephew are eager to be part of the family’s legacy and continue it. “I can’t describe to you the feeling I get when my nephew or my son tell me about something that’s going on in the field,” Blanchard said. 
 
Just like him, they grew up to appreciate the land and what it has provided for their family. “It’s just so rewarding to travel the field at sunset and see the fruits of your labor,” Blanchard said. One day, it will be time for the next generation to take over although, if the Blanchard family history tells you anything, none of them will be leaving the field anytime soon.